EU should reduce dependency on Russian gas, oil: Foreign policy chief

ANKARA

Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, the EU should tighten the flow of money going to fund Moscow’s “aggression” by reducing its dependence on Russian fossil fuels, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said Monday.

"The European Union has to decrease as quickly as possible its dependence on Russian oil and gas," Borrell told reporters after a virtual meeting with EU countries’ defense ministers. “We pay a very high bill to Putin, and this money is being used to finance its military aggression.”

He added: "We will further strengthen our sanctions package against the Belarus regime and all those who cooperate with the Russian military operations against Ukraine."

He noted that Ukraine has been asking for support for geospatial intelligence and that they have mobilized a satellite center to work on that.

"With the mobilization of resources, everything is on track. It has to be done quickly because the war continues and the war cannot wait for bureaucratic procedures," he said.

Borrell emphasized that the war was started by Putin, and by the oligarchs around him and that the Russian public should be set apart from this. He stressed that the best way of fighting is the fight against black money.

Borrell said he will be visiting Moldova to meet Ukrainians who fled the war. "But Moldova is mainly one of the countries in which we believe that the Russian pressure can increase in the coming days," he added.

Moscow’s war on Ukraine entered its fifth day on Monday, with the latest reports indicating that Russian troops were heading toward the capital, Kyiv.

The war has been met by outrage from the international community, with the EU, UK, Japan, and the US implementing a range of economic sanctions on Russia.