Top EU diplomat compares Russian tactics in Ukraine to those in Syria

BRUSSELS 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Wednesday that the Russian army is bombing Ukrainian cities regardless of civilian casualties like it did in Syria and Chechnya.

Speaking to the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Borrell said the Russia-Ukraine war will end but “will leave a mark on history.”

He explained that the Russian leadership had planned to quickly take over Kyiv and other cities and believed that “Ukraine is weak and servile,” but the “strong resistance” stopped them.

“In response, the Russian army is doing the only thing it knows. It is bombing as it did in Aleppo, across all of Syria and in Chechnya,” Borrell noted, saying Russia will carry out its operation “without any concern for the civilian casualties.”

According to Borrell, the war in Ukraine is a “wake-up call from our dream of development and prosperity” and Europeans have to understand that “our way of life comes indeed with a cost.”

Borrell noted that the bloc has to raise its defense spending and “break the energy ties that paralyze us” and should not allow Russia to “weaponize interdependency.”

He also said that after the illegal annexation of Crimea, the EU should have permanently reduced energy imports from Russia, but it did the contrary.

Now, it needs a “collective commitment” from Europeans to consume less energy and to invest in renewables.

Besides sanctions, the war on Ukraine has drawn international condemnation and spurred an exodus of global companies from Russia.

The EU earlier adopted three sanctions packages against Russia, targeting among others President Russian Vladimir Putin, top diplomat Sergey Lavrov, removing seven Russian banks from the SWIFT international banking system, and banning broadcasting activities of Sputnik and RT media outlets.

The European Commission proposed on Tuesday a plan to replace two-thirds of Russian gas imports until the end of the year by accelerating the bloc’s energy transition to renewables and diversifying the EU’s gas supply.

At least 474 civilians have been killed and 864 others injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, according to UN figures.

Over 2.1 million people have also fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, data by the UN refugee agency showed.

Moscow retaliated to the sanctions by issuing a list of states and territories that took “unfriendly actions against Russia, its companies, and citizens.” According to the decree, overseas creditors in these countries can be paid in rubles instead of foreign currencies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also ordered the government to draft a list of imports to be banned or restricted.