EU does not believe that for now Russia will cut the supply of gas and crude oil

The head of diplomacy of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrell, said that at the moment he does not believe that Russia is going to cut off the supply of hydrocarbons, but affirmed that measures have been taken to have other sources of supply.

“At the moment we do not expect it and we would have the means to respond”, assured Borrell in an interview with the France 24 channel, when considering the possibility of a closure of the Russian energy supply due to the war in Ukraine.

He explained that the Twenty-Seven have “taken steps to have other sources of supply”, without going into which ones, after having emphasized that it is one thing that geopolitical tensions are increasing energy prices and another that energy is not available due to lack of supply.

About 40% of the gas consumed in the EU comes from Russia. With the start this Thursday of the invasion of Ukraine, the price in the European market shot up 30% in a single day.

Borrell admitted that the sanctions against Russia that the leaders of the Union agreed on on the night of Thursday to Friday at an extraordinary European Council in Brussels “they are not going to stop the invasion tomorrow but they are going to do a lot of harm to the Russian economy”.

“The EU uses the means it has. It is not a military alliance. We act in the civil field”, he justified himself before emphasizing that although this train of measures against Moscow will not end the war, it will have a longer-term effect and will cut off its access to financing and strategic technologies.

Asked why it has not been decided to prevent him from using the international payment and banking data platform Swift as some have requested, his response was that “everything is on the table” and that what has been decided is a “gradual” action.

He explained that last nightthere was no consensus” for that measure but “doesn’t mean we won’t do it later”. And he added that it is the foreign ministers who are now going to formalize the principle agreements reached by the heads of state and government in the European Council.

As for the fact that since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the first sanctions then Russia has strengthened its ability to resist, he admitted that in these years it has further developed its agri-food sector and increased its reserves.

But he emphasized that the new train of measures will act on certain strategic sectors “and that will hurt”.

Borrell said that the EU will “the possible” to welcome the refugees who will want to flee from Ukraine due to the war, he acknowledged not knowing what the result of the invasion will be, but pointed out that “the ukrainian army has not sunk”.

As for the possibility that the Russian president does not stop at Ukraine, the head of EU diplomacy indicated that Vladimir Putin has a particular sense of history and, as he has repeatedly said, he considers that the end of the Union Soviet was “the greatest tragedy for Russia”.

“In one way or another, he warned, it is trying to rebuild Russia’s area of ​​influence by trying to influence, absorb or control the countries that were part of the tsarist empire first and the Soviet Union later.”.