The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said sanctions imposed as a result of the war in Ukraine were not about seeking any regime change in Russia.
“We are not on the regime change. The sanctions are not in order to provoke a regime change in Russia,” Borrell said.
“On the contrary, the sanctions have been triggered by the war. And the purpose is to weaken the Russian economy, to make the Russian economy feel the weight of the consequences and to increase, strengthen the position of the Ukrainians on the coming negotiations. But nothing about regime change,” he said.
Borrell also said the sanctions would not end the war in Ukraine right away.
“We can do many things but if people are expecting financial sanctions to stop the war overnight, they don’t know what they are talking about. Unfortunately we don’t have the ability to stop the war in its tracks. What we can do however is weaken the Russian economy significantly over time,” he said.
Borrell added the EU’s response was not against the Russian people but to uphold international norms.
“This is not the East against the West. This is not a remake of the Cold War. We are defending the sovereignty of the nations – all nations. We are defending the territorial integrity of states – all states. On the East, on the West, on the North and in the South. It’s not again the battle of two hemispheres. We are defending international law, sovereignty of the states, territorial integrity, non-violation of borders is something that is valuable for anyone in the world. We are not enemies of the Russian people, we are friends of Ukraine, we are supporting them on their fight but we are not against the Russian people,” Borrell said.
“That’s Putin war, and only Putin can end it,” Borrell added.
Borrell also said the EU will “not ask [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky to surrender.”
“We are not going to ask Zelensky to leave Kyiv, we are not going to ask him to stop fighting,” he added.
