Russia's duty as aggressor is to pay reparations to Ukraine - European Commission Vice President Dombrovskis

The speech was reported by Ukrinform.

On Friday, January 20, during a discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis talked about the trajectory of further relations with Russia.

"The first thing we have to do in the longer term is to bring this war to an end, and to end it with a victory for Ukraine. The question arises: how will Russia be involved in this post-war world? Russia, as an aggressor, has a duty to pay reparations to Ukraine.  The answers to the question of postwar relations will reflect the processes in Russia itself: whether they intend to continue their aggressive imperialist policy and prepare new aggressive plans. This question can only be answered by Russia itself, we cannot answer it for them," Dombrovskis said. 

He expressed his belief that the EU will continue to distance itself from Russia in bilateral relations. In particular, the EU cannot continue to rely on Russian energy supplies, as Russia has openly used them as a tool for blackmail and manipulation. 

"That is why we are now looking for alternative ways of energy supply. We have done it for this winter, we will need to do it for the next winter as well.  Our overall strategy is to move away from Russian fossil fuel supplies.  We cannot rely on such countries," he emphasized. 

Dombrovskis added that an important task for the EU is to win the "war of narratives" waged against the world by the Russian propaganda and disinformation machine.  In particular, Russian propaganda is trying to blame the food crisis and food insecurity on European sanctions against Russia, although the West has never imposed sanctions on food or its supplies.  

"This is a complete manipulation by Russia. It is a fact that they are blocking food supplies from Ukraine, while we are very intensively involved in unblocking such supplies, in particular through our initiative of "corridors of solidarity" and through the UN initiative to unblock the Black Sea ports," Dombrovskis said. 

In addition, according to him, the EU is currently making efforts to help the countries of the global South overcome the consequences of Russian aggression against Ukraine. In this context, the EU will continue to pursue "global" economic cooperation, develop relations with countries in Africa, Asia, South America, and regional organizations such as Mercosur, ASEAN, and others. 

Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov says that Russian troops have caused USD 35.3 billion in damage to Ukraine's environment during the full-scale invasion.