Ukraine’s candidacy for the EU: Moscow denounces a “geopolitical grab” to “contain Russia”


In a statement, the Russian spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry said that the Twenty-Seven aimed “to establish relations with the regions of its neighborhood based on the master-slave principle”.

Russian diplomacy denounced Friday, June 24 the decision of the Twenty-Seven to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidate for the European Union, seeing it as a geopolitical maneuver against Moscow in full offensive in its Ukrainian neighbor.

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This decision “confirms that a geopolitical monopolization of the space of the CIS (the Commonwealth of Independent States, which brings together several countries of the former USSR, editor’s note) is actively continuing in order to contain Russiasaid Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. The European decision comes four months after the start of the Russian offensive against its Ukrainian neighbor, intended in particular to put an end to Ukraine’s rapprochement with the West.

According to Maria Zakharova, the EU aims “establish relations with neighboring regions based on the master-slave principle“. She claimed that Brussels uses “methods of political and economic blackmailand pressured candidate states to takeillegitimate sanctionsagainst Moscow. “This aggressive approach by the European Union has the potential to create new schisms and much deeper crises in Europe.โ€œ, she continued.

Accuses the EU of wanting to go to war

Earlier in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was more measured. “It’s an internal European affair.“, he had declared, noting nevertheless that he was “important” that “all these processes do not bring more problems for Russia“. For his part, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, considered that the accession of Ukraine and Moldavia did not present “no riskfor Russia, because the EU is not a military alliance, and recalled that President Vladimir Putin had said he had no objection.

But he also used a martial vocabulary, accusing the EU and NATO of wanting to wage war on Russia, as the Nazis had done in their time. “Hitler under his banner had brought together much of Europe to wage war against the Soviet Unionโ€œ, he said, during a trip to Azerbaijan. “Today, the EU and NATO are gathering such a contemporary coalition to fight and, to a large extent, wage war on Russia.“, he added. Moscow sees Western arms supplies to Ukraine as a way of waging a proxy conflict against Russia.

The leaders of the Twenty-Seven recognized on Thursday, during a summit, Ukraine and Moldova, two pro-Western former Soviet republics, the status of candidate for the EU. This decision marks the beginning of a long and complex process towards accession. Georgia, which also wants to join the EU, will still have to make reforms to obtain this status. A vast demonstration of the European aspirations of this Caucasian country is scheduled for Friday evening in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.


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