We reacted mildly when he invaded Georgia in 2008, said the High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell at the EU Defence night, in the margins of the NATO Summit

“75 years ago, our response was unity. The United States and the free and democratic States of Europe committed to collective defence, and we created NATO. But when the Cold War ended, we believed that freedom, peace and democracy were not only the only possible future, but they were taken for granted. They did not need to be defended. And today, President [of the United States, Joe] Biden has said that freedom and peace cannot be taken for granted. They come with a price.

Then we look at Putin butchering [people in] Chechenya in 1999, intervening in Syria. We reacted mildly when he invaded Georgia in 2008 and half-hearted when we saw him annexing Crimea in 2014.

We did not want to see what was obvious. That Putin wants Russia to dominate its neighbourhood again. Putin has not given up on Russia’s imperialist ambitions. And that is the problem: Russia is still behaving as an empire, and Putin wants to rebuild the empire - be it the Tsar empire or the Soviet empire.

Then finally, in February 2022, when they started bombing Kyiv, we woke up to this unhappy reality, and we found ourselves poorly prepared. That is another fact. We woke up and then we realised that we were not prepared to face this challenge. Yes, the history rhymes.

75 years ago, the Soviet Union emerged as a threat to freedom and democracy in Europe, and we responded with unity and strength. And today, the only thing that we can do is to follow the same path”, - said Josep Borrell.