The EU approved a new package of sanctions against Russia. It focuses on energy, military complex and shadow fleet; Slovakia agreed after guarantees regarding Russian gas.
The EU Member States approved on Friday at the level of permanent ambassadors by 18 sanctions against Russia, not appointed diplomats said, according to AFP. The measures have been blocked by Slovakia, but Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on Thursday that the Slovak Republic will allow the package approval because it has received sufficient guarantees from the European Commission (EC) in case of plan to stop Russian gas imports into the EU, writes TASR.
“The EU has just approved one of its most powerful packages of sanctions against Russia,” said Kaja Kallas, head of EU diplomacy, on the X Network.
A penalty of Russian exports
18. The set of sanctions against Russia for its invasion on Ukraine, according to Brussels, should affect Moscow’s revenue from energy and military complex. Its received version counts on reducing the price ceiling to Russian oil and a ban on trading in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, Kallas explained.
According to her, the EU penalty list was the first to include the largest refinery of the Russian oil company Rosneft in India. The measures will also affect those who, according to Kallas, “indoctrinate Ukrainian children”. The target of sanctions will also be another 105 ships, which Brussels considers as part of the so -called. Russian shadow fleet, and their supporters. Russian banks will in turn have limited access to foreign funding.
Targeted pressure on Moscow
“We are putting more pressure on the Russian military industry, Chinese banks that allow circumvention of sanctions, and block the export of technology used in unmanned aircraft. We will constantly increase costs, so stopping aggression will become the only option for Moscow,” Kallas wrote.
The Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic said on Thursday that the Slovak representatives of the penalty package vetoed six times. According to him, the Slovak Republic has a written obligation of the EC signed by its chairwoman Ursula von Der Leyen and the College of Commissioners, which relate to the plan to stop the supply of Russian gas to the EU since 2028.
