If the West allows Russian President Vladimir Putin to oppose the principles of the world order with impunity, this will open Pandora's box of problems for the whole world, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

If we allow these principles to be challenged, as Putin is doing now, with impunity, it will open Pandora's box of problems not only for us, but, frankly, for the whole world, Blinken said ahead of an extraordinary meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Friday.

The Secretary of State noted that Russian aggression is relevant for the whole world.

Because, first of all, literally, the lives of Ukrainian men, women and children are at stake, he said. But beyond that, very fundamental principles that we established together after two world wars, which are so important in order to maintain peace and security for all, the principles that President Putin blatantly violates every single day: the notion that one country cannot simply go and change the borders of another or grab it, the principle that one country cannot dictate another choice that its citizens should make about their future, the principle, that we have passed the time of spheres of influence, when one country bends its neighbors to its will. All these things are at stake, Blinken said.