European foreign ministers are set to meet on the sidelines of the UN general assembly on Wednesday to discuss new support for Ukraine following Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to partially mobilise some 300,000 reservist troops for his war effort.
The urgent meeting also aims to address Russia’s intention to annex parts of southern Ukraine that it captured early in the conflict through hastily arranged referendums while fighting is ongoing.
"The ministers have to discuss this threat, to reiterate the continuing support to Ukraine and to alert the international community about the unacceptable situation in which Putin is putting all of us," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters.
He added that ministers would discuss an eighth sanctions package on Russia, as well as additional support for the war effort.
“It’s clear Russia wants to destroy Ukraine,” Mr Borrell said. “We will not be intimidated.”
The meeting comes a day after Mr Putin announced a partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservist troops to shore up his forces in Ukraine, which have suffered a series of defeats and loss of territory in recent weeks.
Mr Putin also appeared to raise the prospect of using nuclear weapons in response to his failures in Ukraine.
“Russia will use all the instruments at its disposal to counter a threat against its territorial integrity—this is not a bluff,” Mr Putin said in a national address.
Estonia’s foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu told Reuters on Wednesday that Mr Putin’s latest comments were a “game-changing moment,” which should be met with new sanctions and increased weapons supply to Ukraine.
"We should also declare the commitment of legal responsibility. The fuhrers in the Kremlin should not take it for granted that their accountability for the genocidal war should be taken mildly," he added.
Mr Putin was beset by a wave of condemnation from world leaders throughout the day at the UN general assembly. Earlier in the day, US president Joe Biden hit out at Russia’s “brutal, needless war” in Ukraine, and accused Moscow of threatening nuclear war.
“Again, just today, President Putin has made overt nuclear threats against Europe, in a reckless disregard for the responsibilities of the nonproliferation regime,” Biden said. “A nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.”
