EU will address Ukrainian crisis with Blinken and willingness to sanction Russia

The foreign ministers of the EU they will speak tomorrow, Monday, with the Secretary of State American, Antony Blinken, on the latest contacts he has had with Russia on the crisis in Ukraine, when they have already made clear their willingness to quickly sanction Moscow if it attacks its neighbor again.

“Russia is now focused on dialogue with the United States,” said a senior community official, about the situation of the diplomatic contacts that are being carried out to avoid a new conflict in Ukraine.

The European Union (EU), which does not want to be left off the hook from the discussions on security in its own territory, will invite Blinken to join the meeting of Foreign Ministers by videoconference so that he can share with them the latest contacts with Moscow.

More specifically, the one held on Friday in Geneva with the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, to address the military reinforcement that Moscow is carrying out with Ukraine, in which he promised to present a written response to the demands of Russia so that NATO does not continue to expand near its borders.

The high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, has assured that he is coordinating with Blinken before and after the meetings that the American is holding with Russia, as well as with other allies.

“The objective is to share with the EU ministers the dialogue between Russia and the US and how we are advancing in our reflection on it,” community sources indicated.

The deputy secretary general of the European External Action Service, Enrique Mora, met last Tuesday in Moscow with several Russian deputy ministers to discuss the situation in Ukraine, among other issues.

“The EU is a very relevant organization” for Russia, stressed the sources, who assured that they have made it clear to Moscow that in the talks on security in Europe the EU “sooner or later has to be present, because it would be inconceivable if not” .

The European ministers hope to approve at their meeting on Monday some conclusions on European security in which, according to diplomatic sources, they will express the “very strong international unity” against Russia and will put black on white the Decalogue that Borrell outlined during the informal meeting that held last week in Brest (France).

These ten points bring together claims to Moscow such as the rejection “of the Russian attempt to create spheres of influence in Europe” similar to those that existed before the fall of the USSR, or the warning of sanctions if it attacks Ukraine, but also the will to continue negotiating with Russia.

quick sanctions

The EU wants to give dialogue a chance, but it has been blunt, like the US and the rest of its allies, that if there is again a Russian aggression against Ukraine, the reaction will be “very fast” and “extremely clear” , according to community sources.

Ministers are not expected to discuss the restrictive measures on Monday, although the sanctions package would already be ready.

“We did it in 2014, there’s no reason why we couldn’t do that now,” the sources said, about the possibility of launching new sanctions “in a matter of days” for Russian behavior, which “would be no less” than those approved then.

The current situation, with thousands of Russian troops prepared along the Ukrainian border, represents “the most serious challenge to the European security order since the early 1990s, since the end of the Cold War,” they recalled.

In 2014, when Russia illegally annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the deployment of the Russian Army was expected in the city of Mariupol, the EU was able to approve economic and industrial sanctions in just 72 hours as it was already prepared.

Specifically, they included elements such as a ban on Russia and large Russian companies being able to borrow money from European financial markets.

“The implementation of sanctions depends on what sanctions we agree to. Most are applied the same day of publication (…) But we are talking about contingency plans”, they pointed out, trusting that it will not be necessary to reach a point where restrictive measures have to be resorted to.

“We must prepare ourselves for all eventualities,” diplomatic sources pointed out, adding that they are “willing to take measures whose nature must be calibrated.”