EU will sanction Putin and the rest of those involved in recognition of Donbas

The European Union (EU) will react with sanctions against those involved in the illegal decision announced this Monday by the Russian president, Vladimir Putinto recognize the independence of the self-proclaimed separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, in the region of donbasin eastern Ukraine.

The announcement was made in a joint statement by the president of the European Council (the countries) and the European Commission (EC), Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen, respectively, very shortly after Putin made the announcement in Moscow after a long television speech.

“The Union will react with sanctions against those involved in this illegal act,” Michel and von der Leyen announced in the note, reiterating their “unwavering” support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and that they had previously rejected in unison in two identical tweets this “flagrant violation of international law, the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the Minsk agreements” perpetrated by Putin, which they condemned in their note in the “strongest terms”.

The EU and its partners will react “with unity, firmness and determination in solidarity” with Ukraine, both stressed in unison on their official Twitter accounts.

A message that was also replicated shortly after by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.

A clearly synchronized reaction and absolute unity between the three main European institutions, which this afternoon, just before Putin’s announcement, had also been stressed by the EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels to analyze the situation in Ukraine and the actions to be taken if Russia took the step that has finally taken place live before the eyes of the whole world.

“We are willing to react with a united and strong front,” said the EU’s high representative for Foreign Affairs at a press conference at the end of the Council of Community Ministers, in which he brandished the threat of sanctions if there were annexation of the two provinces whose independence from Ukraine Putin has recognised.

He specified that “certainly if there is an annexation, there will be sanctions. And if there is recognition, I will put the sanctions on the table and the ministers will decide,” warned Borrell.

Putin’s decision

The agenda of the meeting of European ministers was evolving “on the fly”, as the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, later acknowledged.

While the ministers held their meeting in Brussels, Putin gathered the Russian Security Council to hear their views.

And shortly after Borrell appeared, the Russian president informed his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, of his intention to recognize the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk, according to a Kremlin statement, which advanced his “intention to sign the respective decree”, something he did tonight before the cameras.

Borrell recalled before the document was signed that it is his responsibility, according to the EU treaties, to put “on the table the package of sanctions that has been prepared” so that the ministers decide on its approval, and pointed out that the Council European, the community leaders, “the highest political authority in the EU”, give the guidelines that the ministers follow.

He explained that foreign ministers today condemned the build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine because it “increases provocations” by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

They also condemned the orchestrated actions and the manipulation of information that, “clearly, are creating a pretext for military escalation in Ukraine.”

“Ukraine is not a military threat to Russia but a fully democratic, prosperous Ukraine, with EU standards of freedom and prosperity, that is a mirror that represents a danger to the Russian political system,” he commented.

Likewise, according to the high representative, they praised Ukraine for its “containment” in the face of this “intimidation” and the violation of the Minsk agreements to pacify the Ukrainian east and international law.

sanctions

“Unanimity in the case of Ukraine is guaranteed, everyone agrees,” said Borrell, referring to the package of sanctions that they have prepared and that the member states will adopt.

The Baltic countries today pressed again on the possibility of sanctioning Russia before any military aggression takes place, considering that Ukraine is already suffering the damage of the encirclement of Russian forces on its borders.

For his part, the Polish Foreign Minister, Zbigniew Rau, clarified at the exit that there was a debate on how to focus the sanctions in the case of “not a complete invasion of Ukraine, but something of the type called ‘salami tactics’, which we already know in this part of Europe”, alluding to the annexation of a territory without provoking an open war, as is the case here.