EU foreign ministers adopted a new sanctions package against Russia on Monday in Luxembourg, covering more than 1,600 individuals and organisations – the largest expansion of the sanctions list since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced this.
The majority of the new entries target Russia’s military-industrial complex. More than half of them are linked to the production chain for ballistic missiles. “This is the largest expansion of our sanctions list since the start of Russia’s war,” said Kallas. Europe was thereby showing a “united front”. She added: “We are making it significantly harder, slower and more expensive for Russia to produce the weapons with which it kills Ukrainians.”
Also newly added to the list are 77 Russian politicians who registered as candidates for the Duma election in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine in violation of international law, as well as seven North Korean individuals and organisations involved in the war against Ukraine. Two Russian oligarchs were removed from the sanctions list.
In order to ensure the legal review of the massive new sanctions in time, the specialist departments in the European External Action Service had recently worked around the clock. Senior EU officials explicitly praised this, as tagesschau.de reports. A further roughly 25 new listings in connection with the attempted drone attack in Leipzig, which Germany is submitting, have not yet been legally reviewed. These individuals and institutions are only being discussed today; at best, an initial political agreement will be reached.
Criticism of Trump’s diesel deal
The question of how to further increase pressure on Russia comes amid the scandal between the US and Ukraine and is once again being torpedoed from Washington. On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced a diesel deal with Russia. Shortly before the important midterm elections in early November, the US president wants to lower high fuel prices and to that end suspend US sanctions on Russian energy. For the first time since March 2022, Russian diesel is to be imported again. “Immediately” 300,000 tonnes, according to Trump, then a further 500,000 tonnes in November and further millions of tonnes as soon as the capacities of Russian refineries allow. All of this apparently without any political concessions from Moscow.
A clear statement from the EU foreign ministers is expected on this in Luxembourg. Especially since Trump once again blames Ukraine for the fuel shortages in the US and demands that Kyiv stop its attacks on Russia’s energy supply – one of the few effective means Ukraine still has. During the “energy truce” announced by Trump, Russian attacks on power plants in Ukraine continued unabated.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU), who is being represented in Luxembourg, already said in Berlin that they continued to stand by the Ukrainian government and Zelenskyy and would “fully support him in the exercise of his difficult office”. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is likely to rub his hands: while EU foreign ministers discuss new sanctions, Russia receives additional revenue for its war chest. Yet only last month the US Parliament passed a law giving the president far-reaching powers for new sanctions against Russia.
Grain transports and UNIFIL on the agenda
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sibiha is present today as his EU counterparts discuss how Ukrainian grain transports through the Black Sea can be better secured. Russia is increasingly attacking freighters and grain silos – with fatal consequences not only for the Ukrainian economy, but also for food supplies in large parts of Africa and Asia.
The agenda also includes the Middle East and the UN mission UNIFIL in Lebanon, which ends at the end of the year. Since 1978, around 10,000 blue-helmet soldiers have been stationed on the border between Lebanon and Israel to secure the border there. EU foreign ministers are now discussing a successor mission, though significantly smaller, as a pure training mission. That is why EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas also travelled to the region last week and had announced the start of the mission at the meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Editor’s note: With the largest sanctions list to date, the EU is setting a signal, but Trump’s simultaneous announcement to import Russian diesel is likely to at least partially undermine the effect of the measures. Whether the EU finds a common response to this remains open.
