EU at UN General Assembly: War in Ukraine is about all of us

On 19 September, EU foreign ministers met informally in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly to coordinate the EU’s messages to political leaders from around the world. 

This year, the war in Ukraine will be one of the top issues in the Assembly’s agenda, said EU High Representative Josep Borrell after the meeting.

“Ukrainian people are being bombed with missiles and with guns, and the rest of the world is being affected by the price increase in energy and food insecurity and being affected by – as a consequence – the economic problems. It is not only against Ukraine. It is about all of us. And this is what we will try to explain here in New York,” said Borrell.

He added that the EU would promote at the UN General Assembly international support for Ukraine and efforts to find a way to hold Russia accountable for the war atrocities committed in Ukraine.

Borrell also said that meetings in New York would be an opportunity to communicate directly to international partners that it was not EU sanctions that had caused the food crisis, but Russian aggression against Ukraine. 

“The United Nations’ Grain Deal and our efforts through the [EU] Solidarity Lanes have already led to a decrease in food prices worldwide. Look at the statistics: two thirds of the Ukrainian exports have gone to Africa, to the Middle East and Asia. So, it is not true what Mr Putin says, that the grain that has been exported from Ukraine has not gone to the people that need it,” added Borrell.

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