Brussels, Apr 20 (EFE).- The European Union’s chief of foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell, downplayed the importance of Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg’s surprise visit on Thursday to Ukraine.
In an interview with Efe, Borrell said it “should not come as a surprise” that Stoltenberg had become the latest Western leader to visit Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine.
The EU High Representative also pointed out that the alliance as a whole was not providing support to Ukraine.
“It’s not Nato as an organization but Nato member states and not even all of them,” Borrell said.
“Turkey, for example, is not doing it; European countries are, and the US is doing much more,” he added.
“Between all of us, we must help Ukraine defend itself,” the Spanish politician said, highlighting the 67 billion euros in aid the EU had sent to the former Soviet republic since the war began.
Borrell also condemned world leaders, such as Brazil’s Lula da Silva, who have said that the West is prolonging the war and that it should stop providing military support to Ukraine.
“I think that it would be better to say that, to end the war, the one who started it should withdraw from the territory he has invaded. If we stop supporting Ukraine, Ukraine is over. If Russia stops attacking Ukraine, the war is over,” he said.
Borrell also dismissed “Russia’s narrative” that the West was causing the war and that Russia was under threat, pointing to the fact that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s claim at a forum in New Delhi that his country was “defending itself from Ukraine’s invasion” was met with laughter.
“This doesn’t mean that the Russian narrative is not supported (by some countries). But there weren’t Nato troops deployed in Ukraine nor weaponry…No, that accusation does not stand,” Borrell said. EFE
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