European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out plans for the EU’s next package of sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine in Brussels on Tuesday.
The proposals, which will require approval from the governments of member states, include a bid to deny Russian military servicepeople entry into the EU.
The bloc is also planning further restrictions on various industrial sectors, on the banking industry and cryptocurrency assets, and on Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of ships accused of helping circumvent sanctions on things like oil sales.
What did von der Leyen say about the troop entry ban?
Von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the ban would apply to anybody who had served the Russian Armed Forces since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“We propose for the first time to ban from entry into the European Union anyone who has served in the Russian Armed Forces since the beginning of the war,” von der Leyen said.
“Europe stays off limitis for anyone who has participated in the invasion of Ukraine, simple as that,” she said.
What other sanctions are the EU planning?
Von der Leyen also proposed measures targeting Russia’s financial, energy and fishery sectors.
It would include a proposal to keep the current price cap on russian oil fixed until January next year, despite the recent increases in oil prices caused by the conflict in Iran and the wider Gulf region. The cap — currently forbidding purchases for prices above $44.10 (€38) per barrel, far below the market rates — would rise along with global prices without this adjustment.
“Our oil price cap has a built-in adjustment mechanism to follow the market. It was not made for market shocks like the one caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz,” von der Leyen said.
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The sanctions would target an additional 31 Russian banks, and also add a further 30 ships to the 632 already listed as part of the Russian “shadow fleet.”
Von der Leyen said the EU was also targeting more metals and alloys used in the aerospace and defense industries.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that “brick by brick, we are collapsing the foundations of Russia’s war economy.”
Zelenskyy attends Nordic and Baltic summit amid drone alerts
Also on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with leaders of Nordic and Baltic states in Tallinn, Estonia, visiting the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) summit as a guest.
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lituania, Norway and Sweden are members of the group.
Zelenskyy also held bilateral meetings with some of the countries’ prime ministers in Tallinn as well as with Estonian President Alar Karis.
“We will discuss how we can strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities, increase pressure on Russia, and make Europe as a whole safer,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said ahead of the summit.
The Nordic and Baltic states are among the strongest supporters of Ukraine amid the Russian invasion. Finland and Sweden, neutral throughout the Cold War, are also the newest NATO members, having joined the alliance in response to the war.
The visit follows a series of recent incidents where Ukrainian drones had strayed into the airspace of Baltic states or Finland. Kyiv and the NATO members accuse Russia for scrambling the aircraft’s navigation systems.
Kyiv has been targeting sites in northwestern Russia, not least its major Baltic oil terminals of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, more frequently in recent weeks.
Zelenskyy said online that Ukraine would offer to send drone interception specialists to the affected countries to assist, saying Kyiv had already provided a similar service to Gulf states amid Iranian drone attacks.
“We sent our expert teams, who provided training on how to act in the circumstances of various threats. And these are pretty fast and effective solutions,” he said.
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Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez
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