Marcelo “vehemently condemns” Russia’s actions, expressing solidarity for Ukraine

President Marcelo has “vehemently condemned” Russia’s recognition of separatist-held areas in Ukraine as independent, expressing total solidarity with the country that has roughly 40,000 of its nationals living in Portugal. “We have to wait for European decisions, and then the Portuguese government and Portugal will pronounce on what is decided with regard to the position of the European Union in conjugation with the United States, United Kingdom and Canada”, he said today. Meantime, European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen has outlined the first sanctions to be applied while German chancellor Olaf Scholz has suspended authorisation of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.