The EU and US are expected to announce further action against Russia, with sanctions reportedly being considered against President Vladimir Putin’s daughters.
A day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made harrowing testimonies at the United Nations about what he described as war crimes atrocities, EU diplomats prepared to discuss a ban on Russian coal, halting transactions with four major banks, and later many Russian ones Ban ships from EU ports on Wednesday.
The Russian leader’s closest family members could be added to the growing list of sanctions, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported, citing people the news outlets said were familiar with the plan. It is not clear whether these sanctions against Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova will come from the US, the EU, or both.
However, tensions between EU member states increased over the measures. Lithuania, one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in the bloc, said the proposals were “not really an adequate response” to the horrors discovered in Ukrainian cities following the withdrawal of Russian troops.
“Coal, four banks (already defloated), a ban on ports and borders (with exceptions) are not really an adequate package of sanctions for the massacres that are being exposed,” Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said. “A weak response is only an invitation to more atrocities. It could and should be stronger.”
Lithuania announced on Sunday that it had become the first EU member state to halt imports of Russian gas, but the bloc as a whole, which gets 40% of its gas imports from its eastern neighbor, has been reluctant to take the step.
The EU accelerated stalled talks on further sanctions against Russia after evidence surfaced of alleged war crimes against defenseless civilians in cities controlled by Russian forces.
In a harrowing testimony before the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Zelenskyy described how people were shot by tanks, tortured, raped and crushed and called for Russian leaders to be tried for war crimes in an international tribunal modeled on them the Nuremberg Nazi Trials. “There isn’t a single crime they wouldn’t commit there,” he told the congregation. “They killed whole families – adults and children – and tried to burn the bodies.”
Alongside a ban on coal and Russian ships (with exemptions for humanitarian aid, food and energy), the European Commission has proposed a total transaction ban on four Russian banks, including the second-biggest VTB. However, the EU cut VTB off from the Swift messaging system, making it much harder to do business with the bank.
According to the proposals announced by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday, Russian and Belarusian road transport companies should be banned from entering the EU. The commission also wants to ban the export of high-tech goods, including quantum computers and advanced semiconductors, to Russia. Certain Russian imports would be banned, including timber, cement, seafood and alcohol products, which are estimated to be worth €5.5 billion each year.
The plans will be scrutinized by EU capitals, who are likely to amend the measures before seeking a unanimous agreement on either Wednesday or Thursday.
After meeting his German counterpart in Berlin, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said European sanctions would include coal and oil.
If passed, the measures would be the fifth package of EU sanctions since Vladimir Putin said he would recognize the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, a basis for the unprovoked invasion he launched days later. While the first four rounds of EU sanctions were agreed relatively quickly, tensions have risen over the next steps.
Poland and the Baltic states have called for a total ban on Russian fossil fuel exports, while Germany, which gets 55% of its gas from Russia, is concerned about unemployment and skyrocketing petrol prices.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was congratulated by the Kremlin on his election victory on Monday, also rejects a gas and oil ban. Austria is also considered lukewarm when it comes to the plans. “It’s clear that Vienna, Budapest and Berlin are less satisfied,” said a diplomat from one of the hard-line, so-called sanctionist countries.
Germany supports the coal ban, which aims to trade with Russia worth 4 billion euros a year. Last month, Deputy Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced a plan to phase out Russia’s coal by the end of the summer and the oil phase-out by the end of the year. “By the end of the year we want to be almost independent,” he said.
The Netherlands, home to the EU’s largest port, Rotterdam, is reportedly backing the ban on Russian ships. Proponents of tough sanctions are also urging removing “some odd exceptions” in existing sanctions, such as closing loopholes in previous measures banning the sale of EU luxury goods to Russia.
In a separate speech to the Spanish parliament on Tuesday, Zelenksiy called for a ban on lucrative Russian oil exports. Drawing parallels between the 1937 bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and the attack on his country, Zelenskyy said the “fate of the whole European project, of the values that unite us” is at stake in Ukraine.
Russia has denied any responsibility for the deaths, claiming photos were staged or people killed after its forces withdrew. However, satellite images show bodies lying on the streets in cities under Russian occupation.
EU sanctions are being drawn up in consultation with the White House, which has promised to ban all investments in Russia. “The goal is to force them to make a decision,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. “Most of our goal here is to deplete the resources that Putin has to continue his war against Ukraine.”
“You can expect … that they will target Russian government officials, their family members, Russian financial institutions and also state-owned companies,” she said.
She declined to comment on Wall Street Journal reports that the sanctions would target Putin’s two daughters.