The European Union has reacted immediately to the attack by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, on Ukraine.
“Once again in the center of Europe, innocent women, men and children are dying or in fear for their lives.
We condemn this barbaric attack”, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, denounced with a serious gesture, in an appearance this Thursday shortly after Putin launched a full-fledged military incursion into Ukraine at dawn, crossing several points of the country border.
The Twenty-seven met this Thursday in Brussels at an extraordinary summit of heads of state and government called urgently to approve a new series of sanctions with "enormous and severe consequences" for Moscow.
"President Putin is trying to return to the times of the Russian empire,"
“These are some of the darkest hours for Europe since the Second World War”, added the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell, who appeared together with the President of the Commission.
"A major nuclear power has attacked a neighboring country and is threatening to retaliate against any country that comes to its rescue," he added, in forceful words, calling the attack a "violation of the basic principles of human coexistence."
Borrell has censured Putin for his "serious and premeditated escalation, which has led to war" and has demanded that he put an end to "this senseless aggression."
Both have strongly condemned what they see as Russia's "unprecedented" military attack on Ukraine.
"With its unprovoked and unjustified military actions, Russia is seriously violating international law and undermining European and global security and stability," says a joint statement by Von der Leyen and the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, also issued to first thing this Thursday.
"We regret the loss of life and human suffering," the text continues.
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Russia and Ukraine: last hour of the war, live
The day promises to be frenetic in Brussels: the ambassadors of the Twenty-seven to the EU have met in an extraordinary way this Thursday to prepare the afternoon summit;
The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, has summoned the representatives of the North Atlantic Council, the Alliance's main political decision-making body, and is also planning a meeting with Von der Leyen.
The president of the Community Executive and the high representative, meanwhile, are now finalizing the package of punitive measures with the intention that the Council (the body where the leaders of the Twenty-seven sit) can adopt them quickly, predictably this Thursday.
The new battery of sanctions, also unprecedented in the EU, according to the head of European diplomacy, has been kept under lock and key and secret for weeks and seeks to "isolate" Russia economically.
The punishment, as explained by Von der Leyen, aims to hit the interests of the Kremlin and its ability to finance the war, and targets strategic sectors of the Russian economy, blocking its access to technologies and key markets for Russia.
"We will weaken the Russian economic base and its modernization capacity and, in addition, we will freeze Russian assets in the EU and stop Russian banks' access to European financial markets", said the head of the Community Executive, who explained that the measures are taken in an "aligned" manner with the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, and also with other allies such as Japan and Australia.
The proposal is placed on the table after the first round of lighter sentences was approved this Wednesday in reaction to the recognition of the independence of the breakaway Ukrainian provinces of Lugansk and Donetsk by Moscow.
This first salvo has been directed against a large part of Putin's government, the leadership of the Russian Army, 351 members of the Duma (the Russian Parliament) and prominent figures from his close circle of businessmen and the Kremlin's propaganda apparatus.
But Putin's "military operation" which, according to the Russian leader, seeks to demilitarize but "not occupy" Ukraine, already looks like a large-scale invasion in the eyes of Brussels, which forces the EU's reaction to rise.
"We call on Russia to immediately cease hostilities, withdraw its army from Ukraine and fully respect the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine," the von der Leyen and Michel statement said.
"This use of force and coercion has no place in the 21st century," adds a text in which the community bloc reiterates its firm support for Ukraine and its people, to whom it commits to continue providing "solid political assistance, financial and humanitarian.
In addition to sanctions, the EU has been preparing contingency plans for weeks to mitigate the effects that these penalties and a possible coup of countermeasures from Moscow may have on the Union.
These emergency measures, also kept secret, focus above all on the energy sector (the Twenty-seven imports 40% of its gas from Russia, and is also highly dependent on Russian oil), with extraordinary tools to stop radical price increases and alternative supply formulas, and also takes into account a possible crisis of refugees fleeing the Ukrainian conflict.
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