EU ambassadors approved a new raft of sanctions against Moscow on Friday, less than two hours before their self-imposed deadline, as the bloc sought to send a strong signal of condemnation of Russia’s “brutal war” against Ukraine on the anniversary of the invasion.
The new measures would cost Russia €11 billion, or $11.8 billion, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said last week.
“For almost a year now, Russia’s war of aggression has been sowing death and destruction,” Von der Leyen told reporters then. “The aggressor has to pay for this.”
Over the course of a year of war in Ukraine, the bloc has imposed a wide array of punitive measures on Russia, including a near-total embargo on Russian oil, curbs on financial transactions, freezes of assets and limits on Russia’s presence in European markets.
The package approved on Friday extends punitive measures against Iranian entities for the first time, some linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, deemed responsible for providing drones to Moscow.
On Friday, a Revolutionary Guards official said that Iran had developed a cruise missile with a range of 1,025 miles, an unconfirmed assertion that added concerns regarding Iran’s capabilities.
The sanctions also include further curbs on trade in products used in the construction sector, as well as of dual-use goods, which can be used for military purposes to make drones, missiles and helicopters. The bloc also targeted several Russian media organisations and individuals contributing to the Kremlin’s “propaganda machine” and “disinformation networks”.
But as the clock was running out on the bloc’s self-imposed deadline of producing a new round of penalties by the war’s anniversary, some more contentious issues, including EU imports of Russian diamonds and targeting family members of Russian oligarchs, were excluded.
The sanctions agreed on by the EU ambassadors must be approved by all member nations. That written approval is expected on Saturday morning, officials said.
“The EU stands united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” said the Swedish delegation, which is holding the rotating EU presidency and was leading the negotiations. “We will keep supporting Ukraine, for as long as it takes.”
Further action
Ukrainian officials on Saturday called for further action quickly to punish Moscow’s aggression after the EU passed its 10th round of sanctions over Russia’s war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky — who had urged the EU to impose sanctions on Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy company — suggested that the latest package did not go far enough.
“The pressure on Russian aggressor must increase,” he wrote on Twitter. “We expect decisive steps against Rosatom & Russian nuclear industry, more pressure on military & banking.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, echoed that call.
“Sanctions are about real economic pain, not about declaration of pain,” he wrote on Twitter. “Russia should suffer not only over crazy propagandists. Sanctions against Rosatom & nuclear industry would work more effectively.”
