The foreign ministers of the member states draw the conclusion from the Russian war of annihilation against Ukraine that a radical reversal of their strategy is necessary.
The confidential document available to the “press” is only one page long, but it means a fundamental reorientation of the EU towards Russia. “In the context of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU’s position is to isolate Russia internationally, introduce and implement restrictive measures against Russia, and prevent their circumvention in order to prevent Russia from waging war,” it said of this draft for the common line of the 27 foreign ministers, which they discussed on Monday in Brussels.
This is a sharp departure from the EU strategy towards Moscow decided on March 14, 2016. At that time, after two years of open and hybrid Russian warfare against Ukraine, “the full implementation of the Minsk agreements” was still the top priority “before economic sanctions against Russia can be lifted”.