Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier had issued a threat that he might use weapons of mass destruction on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, this week.
The EU high representative and Foreign Policy chief Joseph Borrell noted that Puttin is not bluffing when he threatened to use Nuclear weapons on the ongoing Ukraine invasion.
Josep Borrell told the media during an interview that the war has reached a dangerous point.
His observation comes as Russia begins a partial mobilization and moves to occupy four regions in Southeast Ukraine.
Putin has faced setbacks on the battlefield, with his forces pushed back by a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
“Certainly it’s a dangerous moment because the Russian army has been pushed into a corner, and Putin’s reaction threatening to use nuclear arms it is very bad,” Borrell said.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began Seven months ago, analysts have agreed that Putin’s forces are on the back foot, but he said a Diplomatic solution must be reached, one that preserves the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
“Otherwise, we can finish the war, but we will not have peace, and we will have another war,” he said.
While addressing the nation earlier this week, Putin noted that his country had various weapons of destruction and would use all the means available to them, and even claimed ‘I’m not bluffing.
“When people say it is not a bluff, you have to take them seriously,” Borrell said.
In the speech Putin declared the call for up to 300,000 Russians who have done compulsory military service, this led to protests and reports of people fleeing Russia to avoid being sent to the front line.
This is after a quick counter-offensive in which Ukraine says it took more than 8,000 sq km (3,088 sq miles) back from Russian forces.
Now self-appointed referendums advocating for Russia, are being held in four occupied regions. Ukraine has condemned these referendums as seizing attempts and reported that armed Russian soldiers are going door-to-door collecting votes.
Ukraine has dominated this year’s UN General Assembly as this costly war drags on with no clear sense of a way out. Europe’s foreign policy chief was surprisingly blunt and visibly pained.
Borrel went ahead sharing the anxious lament he listened to everywhere, mostly from leaders attending the UN General Assembly this week, inquiring about the end of the war.
“Stop this war, I can’t pay my electricity bill,” was, he regretted, a common refrain.
Borrell was willing to be vocal about Europe and its allies struggling to control the narrative in this war as Russia turns around the view that European sanctions against Russia were to blame for this suffering.
Moscow’s new and worrying threats, including a thinly-veiled nuclear war, are also concentrating minds.
Most Western leaders, including Borrell, are still categorical about the need to stay the course in a conflict with many far-reaching consequences, most of all for Ukraine, but many others too.
Borrell maintained that concerns that the EU’s arms supplies were running low are not the case, and said it must continue providing military support to Ukraine, as well as applying economic sanctions against President Putin and his allies and conducting Diplomatic activity.
He admitted that the rising cost of energy prices caused by the conflict was a matter of concern.
“People in my country tell me the price of the gas means we cannot continue working, we cannot continue making my business run,” the Spanish politician said, adding he had heard similar concerns from leaders from Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.
Borrell called on President Putin to play his part in reaching a negotiated solution, saying “to dance the tango, you need two”.
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“Everybody who has gone to Moscow, to the Kremlin to talk to Putin, they came back with the same answer, ‘I [Putin] have military objectives, and if I don’t get these military objectives I will continue the fight.’ This is certainly a worrisome direction, but we have to continue to support Ukraine,” he said
