‘Russia must not prevail,’ EU tells the world

The EU will ramp up its rhetoric against Moscow when finance ministers travel to Washington for international meetings next week, according to draft statements seen by POLITICO.

“Russia must not prevail” in Ukraine, a nine-page document prepared for the the International Monetary Fund and G20 gatherings says. “Given the urgency of the situation, the EU is determined to continue providing Ukraine and its people all the necessary political, financial, economic, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support for as long as it takes and as intensely as needed.”

“The EU invites allies and partners across the world to join in this endeavour,” the draft, dated April 9, says.

The statement comes just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv could run out of defensive missiles if Russia keeps up its rate of heavy air strikes. Ukrainian forces have also had to retreat from some points on the Russian front.

The language in the April statement is stronger than the last one the EU prepared for a gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s 20 biggest economies in late February.

That document limited its reference to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine to two sentences, warning against the war’s impact on human suffering and negative effects on the global economy.

Finance ministers are also calling like-minded governments to reform and strengthen the World Trade Organization, an intergovernmental body that’s designed to iron out trade disputes.

Doing so would prevent the war in Ukraine war and “broadening geopolitical tensions” from undermining global trade routes, which are still recovering from the economic lockdowns that governments enforced during the pandemic.

“Strong international coordination remains the best guardrail against geoeconomic fragmentation,” the EU statement said.