EU Diplomat Borrel describes Russia's military actions in Ukraine as 'failure' & 'horror'

EU foreign ministers on Monday held a crucial meeting to discuss Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine, war crimes, and sixth round of sanctions with a tougher 'oil embargo', although a consensus proved to be increasingly difficult. The  27 member states agreed to draft and approve sanctions against Russia at the end of this week. "Discussing about Ukraine means certainly discussing the effectiveness of our sanctions," Josep Borrell, the European Union's top diplomat, told reporters in Luxembourg. 

“Russian aggression against Ukraine can be qualified in two words. The first is failure. It's a big failure of the Russian army. The second is horror,” Josep Borrell, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said. 

“What the Russian army left behind is civilians killed, cities destroyed, indiscriminate bombing. The coming Russian offensive in the east makes us even more determined to continue supporting Ukraine.”

EU has imposed five rounds of crippling sanctions on Russian trade and entities

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the EU has imposed five rounds of crippling sanctions on Russian trade and entities, including an import ban on Russian coal. The measures were first announced by Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, on the sidelines of the Moldova Support Conference held in Berlin. “We as the European Union intend to end our fossil energy dependency on Russia, starting with coal, then oil, and finally gas,” the German minister had iterated, hinting at future packages of sanctions in the making. 

EU’s fifth sanction package aimed at reduction in the volume of exports to Russia to the tune of around 10 billion euros per year. At Monday’s Ministerial meeting, EU lawmakers gathered to “discuss which are the further steps.” While European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned about the "rolling sanctions” on Moscow, the bloc abstained from the embargo on Russian oil and gas exports. The EU plans to shrink the export of high-tech products which Russia needs to build its LNG liquefaction plants and ban goods worth approximately four billion euros per year, including timber and cement. Furthermore, more than 200 individuals and 14 entities from Russia are being added to the sanctions list prepared by the ministers. 

“Russia is jeopardising global food security and thus wilfully risking price increases in food. Ukraine – one of the world’s major grain exporters – fears that it has lost half of its agricultural land,” the EU said, condemning Russian troops’ attack on Kyiv’s grain silos, tractors and ports.

“Council discussed efforts to reinforce strategic communication and to counter disinformation, including on the topic of rising food insecurity caused by Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Ministers discussed how to face this challenge of rising food insecurity in other regions of the world, especially in Africa, the Western Balkans, the Middle East, and Latin America,” the EU said in a statement.  Foreign Ministers of the European Union also met with Karim A.A. Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) ahead of the session to discuss the war crime investigation into the civilian killings, violence, and rapes committed in Ukraine as well as sending a team of investigators.