European Union leaders said on Friday they would continue to press on Russia by writing a new set of sanctions to punish Moscow for son invasion of Ukraine walking up military support for Kyiv.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said the 27 officials attending a two-day summit outside Paris will agree to inject 500 millions additional euros (549 millions dollars) in the fund for military aid to Ukraine, as Russia expands son military offensive.
On Friday, Russia struck near airports in west of the country for the first time while the troops guarded up pressure on the capital, Kyiv.
“I made the proposal of double our contribution,” Borrell said. “That’s what we’re going to do, and I’m sure that the leaders will approve it this morning. And it will be done immediately. Now it’s flowing fast.
The EU had previously agreed to spend 450 millions euros on military Provisions for Ukrainian forces in an unprecedented step of collectively supplying arms to a country under attack.
Since the start of the war last months, the EU adopted massive sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, financial system and its high-maintenance oligarchs. Earlier this week, nations in the bloc agreed to impose new sanctions on 160 people and added new restrictions on export of maritime navigation and radiocommunication technology.
They also decided to exclude three Belarusian banks from SWIFT, the main system for global financial transactions. Overall, the EU restrictive measures now apply to a total of 862 individuals and 53 entities.
Borrell said the EU will continue to develop new sanctions targeting oligarchs and Russia economy.
According to an EU official with direct knowledge of the talks at the Palace of Versailles, the idea is to have sanctions ready that can be activated if Putin’s war escalates further. The person was not authorized to speak publicly because of the sensitivity of debates,
Possible new punishments against Russia and son ally Belarus could include cutting all their SWIFT banks, but one total embargo on similar fossil fuel imports from Russia one imposed by Washington is not on Table for now.
“We should be able to define the financial punishments in a broader context. Some banks have been cut off from SWIFT and we could add some,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said. “We should have some strategic patience. A few weeks to see how they bite. At some point it will weaken Russia.”
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said he threatened Russia with spectrum of new punishments should be used to obtain a cessationfire.
“We need to apply high pressure and succeed,” he said.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is set to announce on Friday that, at the same time with the EU and the G-7 countriesthe United States will move revoke the “most favored nation” trade status for Russia over son invasion of Ukraine.
According to a familiar source with the question who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement each country should follow her own national process. Removing most favored nation status from Russia would be allow the United States and its allies to impose tariffs on Russian imports, increasing the isolation of the Russian economy in reprisals for the invasion.
