BRUSSELS, Sept 21 (Reuters) – The European Union’s support for Kyiv will remain steadfast in the face of Russian aggression, the president of the council representing the bloc’s 27 member states said on Wednesday after Russian President Vladimir Putin escalated the war in Ukraine.
President Charles Michel wrote on Twitter from the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) meetings in New York this week: “Kremlin announces mobilization… while at UNGA countries work for cooperation, security and prosperity.”
“In this war, there is only one aggressor, Russia, and one aggressed country, Ukraine,” he said. “EU’s support to Ukraine will remain steadfast.”
His tweet came after Putin ordered Russia’s first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, warning the West he was not bluffing when he said he would be ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia.
EUROPEAN COMMISSION SAYS PUTIN’S “RECKLESS” NUCLEAR GAMBLE MUST STOP
The European Union executive on Wednesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of a “very dangerous nuclear gamble” and said the international community had to put pressure on him to “stop such reckless behavior.”
A foreign policy spokesman for the European Commission, Peter Stano, also told a news conference, the “sham, illegal referenda” Moscow backed in Ukrainian regions it occupies would not be recognised.
“Putin is doing a nuclear gamble. He’s using the nuclear element as part of his arsenal of terror, it’s unaceptable,” Stano said.
