Russian President Vladimir Putin is fighting democracy with his decision to invade Ukraine, and the European Union must take sanctions that isolate him for the rest of the world, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said on Thursday.
"We need to say very clearly to Putin that this is by no means acceptable and the general direction is to isolate ever more Putin and his regime from the rest of the world through the various sanctions", Karins told reporters before an extraordinary meeting of EU leaders.
"Putin is fighting against democracy (...) If he can attack Ukraine, theoretically it could be any other European country", he added.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Marine Strauss and Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by)