BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s executive said on Wednesday Vladimir Putin’s decision on partial mobilisation to fight in Ukraine proved the Russian president was “in desperation” and only seeking to escalate the crisis.
Putin on Wednesday ordered Russia’s first mobilisation since World War Two and backed a plan to annex swathes of Ukraine, issuing a nuclear threat to the West.
“This is just another proof that Putin is not interested in peace, that he’s interested in escalating this war of aggression,” a foreign policy spokesman for the European Commission, Peter Stano, told a news conference.
“This is also yet another sign of his desperation with how his aggression is going against Ukraine…he is only interested in further advancing and continuing his destructive war, which has had already so many bad consequences worldwide.”
(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska)
