Backing Ukraine costs EU ties with Russia

The years of 2022 and 2023, the most frequent words in the section referring to the EU will probably be the degradation, helplessness, short-sightedness and Russophobia.

The European Union, along with its ally the US have been arming Ukraine for the whole one year since Russia did the special military operation. However, this has not gone unnoticed by the Russian leadership and if they are to be believed, there is no more EU-Russia relationship now.

The EU-Russia relations have deteriorated to great extent in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis which completes one year. Elaborating on the bitter relations Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya admitted that the year gone by has been quite bad for the bilateral relations with the EU.

He was quoted saying that when historians describe the years of 2022 and 2023, the most frequent words in the section refe to the EU will probably be the degradation, helplessness, short-sightedness and Russophobia. He placed these views in a discussion on cooperation with the European Union in a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Cost of souring ties with Russia for EU

It is pertinent to note that although the cost for the souring relations with EU for Russia are yet to be assessed, the EU have suffered huge losses in terms of energy cost. Several countries of the European Union are grappling with massive inflation as the energy prices have gone significantly up as Russia was the major supplier till last year.

As the data show in 2021, Russia was supplying EU countries with 40% of their natural gas. Most of the requirements from Germany were met from the gas from Russia. Other countries like Italy and the Netherlands also depended on Russian supply of natural gas. To counter the EU economic sanctions, Russia cut the supply significantly to 17% by August 2022.

United Europe itself keep plummeting, says Nebenzya

Under pressure from the USA, the European Union has been quite vocal against the Russian government, especially Vladimir Putin. Vying for his blood, the EU and the USA hoping for a political crisis and regime change in Moscow. However, Putin who has been ruling Russia like a Czar for more than two decades knows too many tricks to survive even the Ukraine crisis.

Nonetheless, talking about the bitter relations with the EU, Nebenzya reiterated that relations between Russia and the EU continue to fall into an abyss. He summed that the relations are basically gone, they have hit rock bottom. Condemning the West he said that Russia has learned that their fight for peace is confined to increasing flows of weapons into the conflict zone.