Sweden urges Thailand to drop neutral language, acknowledge Russian ‘war of aggression’

“To all our Thai friends. Language matters. What is happening in Ukraine is not a crisis, not two parties that need to de-escalate,” Swedish Ambassador to Thailand Jon Åström Gröndahl said.

“It is an aggression, a war. Let us not imply a parity that does not exist. Russia, and Russia alone, is responsible,” he added, posting on Twitter.

Thailand and Asean have refused to condemn either side following Russia’s invasion last Thursday, instead calling on “all relevant parties … to de-escalate tensions”.

The intervention by Sweden’s ambassador comes amid growing international sanctions against Moscow over the war. On Monday, the Russian rouble collapsed by almost 30 per cent against the dollar after sanctions on Russian banks cut them off from the global financial system.

The Embassy of Sweden in Bangkok also pledged the Scandinavian country’s support to Ukraine on Monday.

“EU and Sweden stand in unity with and reaffirm, as well as scaling up, our unwavering support for Ukraine,” the embassy said in a Facebook post.

“The EU has expanded its economic sanctions against Russia. There is 500 million euros of support for military equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” it went on. “Today, Sweden also decided to close our airspace to all Russian air traffic. Another 10 million euros is being provided for humanitarian support to invaluable partners in Ukraine.”

Swedish Ambassador Gröndahl said he had met with Ukrainian chargé d’affaires Pavlo Orel to reaffirm that the EU stands by Ukraine and its people. “We condemn Russian aggression [against] Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said in a separate Twitter post.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is applying to join the European Union through an unconventional route and expects his country to be immediately admitted, the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) reported on Monday.

The move came as delegates from Russia and Ukraine held peace talks on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border.

Arguing his country has “earned this right”, Zelenskyy has asked the EU to “immediately admit Ukraine as a member under a new special procedure”, the ICIR said. The fast-track access is unprecedented, but European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen has said “Ukraine is one of us”.

The process of joining the EU broadly consists of three stages and membership negotiations cannot start until all EU governments agree, in the form of a unanimous decision by the EU Council, on a framework or mandate for negotiations with the candidate country.

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