Debate: Situation at the Ukrainian border and in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine
Date: TUESDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2021
Speaker: Josep Borrell Fontelles
Language: EN

Now we are talking about the situation on the Ukrainian border and in the Russian—occupied territories of Ukraine. I’ve been talking a lot about it during this weekend in Liverpool, together with my fellow colleagues of the G7 – as you know the most important, the biggest, democracies in the world. I’ve been talking a lot with Secretary of State Blinken and we will talk a lot about it at the next European Union Council. We talked yesterday about it also, with my fellow Ministers of Foreign Affairs. So I think I have all the information I could have in order to come here to discuss with you the Russian military build—up around Ukraine.  First, facts. Since November, Russia has been massing troops and weapons in an unusual manner around Ukraine’s borders. You know that Ukraine is our close strategic partner, so it’s normal that we are worried about this movement of Russian troops. I had the opportunity also to talk about this with the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergei Lavrov, during the OSCE meeting in Stockholm, and with the Foreign Affairs Minister of Ukraine. At the OSCE meeting in Stockholm I witnessed a lively exchange of views between Minister Lavrov and Secretary of State Blinken about this issue.  We, the European Union, maintain regular contact with President Zelensky, with Prime Minister Shmyhal, with Foreign Minister Kuleba. We express at all levels our political support to Ukraine. We publicly recall our unwavering support to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally—recognised border.  According to Russian sources, nothing is happening. They are only moving their troops inside their territory; they are not violating any international law, nor any constitutional internal rule. Certainly they are moving troops inside their borders, but with the precedents, with what has happened between Ukraine and Russia, it is quite justified that the Ukrainians are worried and that we have to express our political support.  But today we are in prevention mode. Today, we are trying to avoid further escalations and to work on all avenues that we can in order to deter further Russian actions. Today we are in deterring mode, prevention mode, dissuasion mode, in order to avoid the crisis escalating and reaching the level of military conflict. We are doing what we can on that. Yesterday at our Foreign Affairs Council, all members reiterated their support for Ukraine, as I said, and also we have recently adopted a set of assistance measures under the European Peace Facility, a new financial tool which is under my policy implementation authority, in supporting Ukrainian armed forces in areas including the provision of military, medical and engineering equipment, and mobility, logistic and cyberdefence support – not providing lethal arms, but in all the fields that an army requires in order to be operational.  These are tangible ways of showing our support to strengthening Ukrainian resilience, and also our support for the Ukrainian reform agenda since 2014. Because the reforms inside Ukraine are also an important component of Ukrainians’ overall resilience to external challenges. The better the functioning of Ukrainian democracy, the highest quality we have in fighting against internal problems, the stronger they will be to face external challenges.  But today we have to talk about an attempt to undermine further Ukrainian territorial integrity which was jeopardised when Russia took over Crimea. This would come, if it happens again, with severe political consequences and with a high political and economic cost for Russia, if this was the case.  We have to act in unity. We are coordinating closely with our transatlantic and like—minded partners. We did that on Sunday, and our G7 statement was clear on this position. We called on Russia to de—escalate, to pursue diplomatic channels, and to abide by its international commitments on transparency of military activities, as President Biden also did in his call with President Putin on 7 December.  In the meantime, as I said, we are in deterrent, dissuasive, prevention mode, and we will continue to do full diplomatic outreach. We reconfirm our support to France and Germany, in the Normandy format, to achieve full implementation of the Minsk Agreements in order to resolve the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. We are studying the different scenarios that one could imagine could happen in the following days or weeks. We recall Russia’s responsibility in implementing the Minsk Agreements. It remains a key issue, and we will continue demonstrating that we will not hesitate to take actions when needed, as by imposing restrictive measures against the Russia—based Wagner Group.  I want to bring to your attention to the fact that these restrictive measures have already been taken, and the Council approved them yesterday. I know that for the Russian authorities, the Wagner Group is a private company, as private as one that could produce sweets, but in any case we consider that we have to show our strong determination to stand up for our interests and values in our neighbourhood and beyond.  Ukraine has the right to make its own foreign and security policy choices. It is an independent and sovereign country, and it has the right to make its own foreign and security policy choices, and we respect fully these choices. Since the starting point of the conflict almost eight years ago, we have been steadfast, at the Ukrainian side. Furthermore, the Ukrainians’ diplomatic efforts to keep the illegal annexation of Crimea high on the international agenda, including through the launch of this international Crimea platform, are welcome and will be supported.  Tomorrow, at the meeting with the Eastern Partnership Summit, we will have another occasion to stress that there is room for enhanced cooperation between the EU and these countries, as well as for gradual convergence in the area of foreign and security policy, in line with partners’ commitments with the EU. I think that strengthening our partners strategic communication capabilities will also be an important element of building resilience, including the fight against disinformation and information manipulation – and there is a lot of it as you very well know.  So for the time being, once again we are expecting the best and preparing for the worst. Should the situation in Ukraine deteriorate, there should be no doubt that we will be ready to respond. But for the time being, we don’t want to contribute to any kind of escalation. We want to be in this prevention mode – that is in the end the role of diplomacy, the work of diplomacy – to try to study the different scenarios, to have an answer prepared for each one of them, and making clear what our answer will be if any one of them happen. Allow me to finish with these words: expect the best, and be prepared for the worst.