Ukraine.- Borrell emphasizes that the West will not send troops to Ukraine “no matter how much Macron says that we should think about it”

MADRID, 9 (EUROPA PRESS)

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has asserted that the West will not send troops to Ukraine to support its Army in the war against Russia, “no matter what” the French president, Emmanuel Macron, says, that he would have to think about it, who on previous occasions has slipped this possibility.

Borrell has stressed the need to “continue defending Ukraine”, although he has ruled out the possibility of sending Western soldiers to the front. “We have not sent them nor are we going to send them,” said the highest representative of community diplomacy during the presentation of his book ‘Europe, between two wars’ at the headquarters of the European Commission Representation in Spain.

However, Borrell has highlighted that the Western powers, especially the countries of the European Union, began supplying helmets to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and now, months after the outbreak of the war, several powers have committed to delivering F-16 combat.

“In Ukraine, the war continues, and it will continue. It will not stop in the short term (…) It will continue as long as Ukraine defends itself,” said Borrell, who emphasizes that Russia not only has the objective of ” to seize provinces in Donbas and maintain Crimea”, but to “change the political situation in Ukraine” and change its Government to one more similar, as in Belarus.

Thus, the High Representative has recognized that Russia is “an existential threat to Europe”, although not all EU Member States think so. “It is a reality, there are some, not many,” said Borrell, who stressed that the EU “runs the risk of losing effectiveness” as more countries enter the bloc.

At this point he has pointed out that the possibility of creating a community army is “an entelechy”, but he has advocated for the Member States to collaborate at the Defense level in a “compatible and shareable” way. “The war in Ukraine has accelerated proposals like this, we have seen the ears of the wolf,” he added.

Thus, Borrell has confessed that, in his opinion, these two years since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine have shown that the Atlantic Alliance is “the only alternative”, and that Europe “should not be so aware of what they vote for.” “Americans every four years.

WAR IN GAZA

Regarding the war in the Gaza Strip between the Israeli Army and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Borrell has denounced the militia’s attack at the beginning of October, which claimed the lives of almost 1,200 people, but has also had an impact in the “overreaction of Israel in its legitimate right to defense.”

“We must continue to apply diplomatic pressure so that the war does not produce so many civilian victims,” ​​said Borrell, thus expressing the European Union’s point of view regarding a war in the Middle East that has already left more than 34,000 dead in Loop. “Without a doubt there are many dead,” he lamented.

However, Borrell has expressed surprise at the duration of the war in Gaza, since previous conflicts in the region “have not lasted that long.” Thus, he has stressed the importance of the United States in “influencing” Israel in order to end hostilities.

When talking about this type of influence, the representative of community diplomacy has pointed out that the recent decision of the president of the United States, Joe Biden, to suspend arms shipments if Israel invades Rafá, is a policy that is “in that address.”

“Biden is going in that direction, but we are very far from Israel being unable to do what it does due to lack of resources because the Western world continues to supply it,” said Borrell, while warning that the offensive on Rafah According to experts, “it could last months” and Israel is going to “destroy grid by grid.”