European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said on Wednesday that the European Parliament will not be blackmailed by Russia.
This after the Kremlin cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria – two NATO nations.
“The EU will not be blackmailed. We are not afraid of Putin. Poland, Bulgaria and other targeted states will find our support,” she said in a Tweet.
Metsola said the EP is calling for an immediate pan-European embargo on Kremlin-controlled energy supplies. “It’s time to cut our dependencies on autocrats once and for all.”
The move by Russia was seen as a dramatic escalation in the conflict that is increasingly becoming a wider battle with the West.
One day after the United States and other Western allies vowed to speed more and better military supplies to Ukraine, the Kremlin upped the ante, using its most essential export as leverage. It then went even further, saying Russia could halt gas supplies to other European customers.