Next week, Ukraine will ask the EU to consider new major steps to isolate Moscow, including the seizure of Russian assets and the imposition of sanctions on some buyers of Russian oil, as U.S. President Donald Trump refused to tighten sanctions, writes Reuters.
In the 40-page document to be presented to the EU, there is a call for the bloc to take a more aggressive and independent stance on sanctions, as the future role of Washington remains uncertain.
Among the recommendations were calls to adopt legislative changes that would expedite the seizure of assets from sanctioned individuals and send them to Ukraine. They are then proposed to demand compensation from Russia.
The EU should consider a range of steps aimed at ensuring sanctions are applied beyond its territory, including against foreign companies that use European technologies to assist Russia, and "introducing secondary sanctions against buyers of Russian oil".
As the agency notes, secondary sanctions, which could affect major buyers such as India and China, would be a significant step that Europe has so far been unwilling to take.
Ukraine also urged the EU to consider the broader use of the majority principle in making sanction decisions, to prevent individual member states from blocking measures.
After speaking with Putin on Monday, Trump decided not to impose new sanctions on Russia, dashing the hopes of European leaders and Kyiv, who had been urging him for weeks to increase pressure on Moscow.
The EU and the UK still imposed additional sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, stating that they still hope Washington will join them. But Europeans are openly discussing ways to maintain pressure on Moscow if Washington is no longer willing to participate.
In the U.S., two potentially major sanction packages were prepared—one by the government and another by Senator Lindsey Graham, but it is "unclear" whether Trump will sign either of them.
"Today, in practice, Washington has ceased participation in almost all intergovernmental platforms dedicated to sanctions and export control," the document states. Washington has slowed work in the monitoring group ensuring compliance with price caps on Russian oil, disbanded the federal task force pursuing sanctions violations.
Uncertainty regarding the U.S. position has slowed the pace of economic countermeasures and multilateral coordination, but "should not prompt the European Union to weaken sanction pressure," on the contrary, it should prompt the EU to "take a leading role," the document's authors believe.
The EU cannot fully replace the United States in exerting economic pressure on Russia. To a large extent, the impact of American sanctions is due to the dominance of the dollar in global trade, which the euro cannot match. Nevertheless, the weakening of U.S. sanctions against Russia will not lead to a significant return of foreign investors and investments if Europe stands firm, believes Craig Kennedy, a Russian energy expert from the Davis Center at Harvard. "Europe has far more cards in hand than one might think," he said.
Photo: Reuters