The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said, on Tuesday 24 September, that it will be a “historic mistake” to stop supporting Ukraine in the Russian war of aggression at a time when some EU Member States have announced a reduction in their support and US support could be threatened if Donald Trump wins.
“As far as Ukrainians want to resist, we have to support them. Otherwise, we will be making a historic mistake”, he warned at the end of a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York.
The High Representative took aim at those he called “peace lovers”. “They want peace quickly, [in] the quickest possible way. But they have not mentioned that the quickest possible way is Russia withdrawing their troops from Ukraine. Yes, there is another way: Ukrainian surrender. But we do not want this kind of ending [of] the war”, stressed Mr Borrell. For him, a Ukrainian surrender in front of the “violation of their territorial integrity” will be a “good example” for the perpetrator, “to start [doing it] again and again”.
The head of European diplomacy explained that the ‘peace lovers’ were “desolated, because the fact that we have been providing support to Ukraine has not finished the war”. “No, but it has allowed Ukraine to defend itself. We want Ukraine to continue defending itself”, he insisted, warning that he did not want Ukraine to capitulate and lose its national identity, its freedom and its territory, and become a “second Belarus”.
And while, according to Mr Borrell, it is important to commit to peace efforts, supporting the Ukrainian army does not exclude supporting the peace process. “The two things have to go together, hand in hand, two sides of the same coin. The stronger Ukraine is, the more we can move towards peace negotiations”, he added, pointing out that no peace initiative should succeed if it ignores the United Nations Charter.
“At the end of the day, it is up to Ukraine, and only to Ukraine, to define the terms in which they want this war eventually to end”, said Mr Borrell.
The High Representative therefore called on the international community to remain “determined” to support the freedom, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders. In his view, the international community should be concerned about the circumvention of sanctions, which is “prolonging the war”.
At the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is due to present his victory plan to US President Joe Biden in the next few days, urged the Security Council to “force Russia to make peace” which would be, according to the Kremlin, an “absolutely fatal mistake”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)