Brussels, April 10 (AFP/APP): EU foreign ministers are on Monday to discuss a sixth round of sanctions on Moscow for its war in Ukraine but the bloc remains divided over a ban on Russian gas and oil imports.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a visit to Kyiv on Friday that the EU was now engaged in “rolling sanctions” against Russia to increasingly punish President Vladimir Putin for his decision to invade his pro-Western neighbour.
“We are mobilising our economic power to make Putin pay a very, very heavy price,” she said. “We have imposed five waves of unprecedented sanctions against Russia. And we are already preparing the next wave.”
Although the sanctions that would hurt Russia the most — an EU boycott of its oil and gas exports — are not on the table formally, European Union diplomats acknowledge there are discussions about them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called for such EU embargoes.
The fifth round of sanctions, imposed since Friday, include a ban on Russian coal imports into the EU — an important first step towards a broader prohibition on more energy supplies.
However unanimity is required among the 27 EU nations for any sanctions to be imposed, and countries reliant on Russian gas — among them Germany, Italy, Austria and Hungary — are reluctant to add it to the list.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, the Kremlin has pocketed more than 35 billion euros ($38 billion) in gas, oil and coal sales to the EU, according to the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
The coal ban is expected to amputate around eight billion euros a year from that amount, according to the European Commission — a minor portion of the overall fossil fuel revenues.
But where the EU is more in agreement is on financing the supply of weapons to Ukraine.
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