By BRUSSELS. Nov 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – High Representative of the European Union for Foreign and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, says that his task is to support Ukraine in its reflection of Russian aggression, and not to assess the situation on the battlefield.
So, in Brussels on Tuesday, at a press conference that took place after the meeting of the EU Council on Foreign Affairs at the level of defense ministers, he answered the question whether he shares the assessment of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny that the fighting had gone into a blind corner.
“The commander–in-chief of the Ukrainian army knows the situation better than I do, and I’m not going to discuss the situation on the battlefield with him – he knows it. And if he said what he said, he is not me who will evaluate whether he is right or not. My duty, my job is to support him, to provide support (to Ukraine). It’s not me who’s leading the battle. It’s not us who are fighting. These are Ukrainians. It is quite obvious that the war has been going on longer than expected. Longer than Putin expected, and we must continue to support Ukraine,” Borrell said.
According to him, during the meeting “there was not a single minister who would have expressed doubts about the need to support Ukraine, doing everything we can with the tools that we have.” “And this is what we are doing,” the High Representative stressed.
Answering the question whether he knows when the F16s will be involved directly in combat, Borrell said: “I have no specific information when the first F16 will fly in the Ukrainian sky. I know that pilot training continues. I know from my own experience that it will take some time.”
Answering the question whether the ministers discussed what to do in case of possible failures of the Ukrainian side on the battlefield, and what the EU’s actions would be in case of a decrease in U.S. support for Ukraine, the High Representative stated that “the Council of Ministers is not a talk show, and he is not an astrologer.” “I do not know what will happen in the USA next year. Frankly speaking, we are busy with more serious things than just speculating what might happen if. We are not talking about ‘if,’ we are busy with ‘what.’ And we know ‘what’ we have to do right now, today, tomorrow, next week, next month. It takes all our energy,” stated Borrell.
