Foreign Minister Joao Gomes Cravinho said Thursday in Paris that sanctions on Russia will remain in place until the invasion of Ukraine ends, with Moscow risking losing the war “in a humiliating way.”
The Portuguese leader considered that the eighth package of sanctions of the European Union approved this Thursday against Russia is the type of punishment that will be maintained as long as Russia insists on the war.
“As long as Russia is on Ukrainian territory, sanctions will be imposed on Russia. The whole world has already begun to realize that Russia is not only not going to win this war, but risks losing in a humiliating way. Therefore, It would be very opportune, on the Russian side, if I started to think about how to get out of the situation that Russia itself created”, said João Gomes Cravinho, questioned by journalists.
The minister is in Paris for visits to UNESCO, the Louvre Museum and for a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, on Friday.
He argued that Moscow does not have the military capacity to maintain on the ground the annexations of the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson territories.
“At this moment I think that it has been shown that Russia does not have the military capacity for the annexations that it claims to have recently made and that they are not valid and that nobody recognizes,” the minister said.
“Portugal will continue to support Ukraine,” assured João Gomes Cravinho.
“I don’t think we can be intimidated by the loose and irresponsible words that we occasionally hear from Russian officials. We will support the Ukrainian armed forces, we will support them politically and financially, until Ukraine achieves its goals,” he declared.
Support for Ukraine was the topic of the meeting with the director of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.
“We talk about the difficulties that exist in terms of world heritage, we are currently experiencing a tragic moment of war, in which there is theft of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, destruction of heritage in Ukraine and we talk about the importance of safeguarding this heritage and the role of UNESCO in the context of the war,” he said.
Source: TSF
