Ukraine proposes that the EU strengthen its tough sanctions plan against Russia, as the US hesitates - Reuters
Kyiv • UNN
Ukraine proposes that the EU confiscate Russian assets and impose sanctions on oil buyers, as the US hesitates to increase pressure on the Russian Federation. Kyiv calls on the EU to take the lead in sanctions policy.
Ukraine will next week propose that the EU consider serious new steps to isolate Moscow, including confiscating Russian assets and imposing sanctions on individual buyers of Russian oil, as US President Donald Trump has refused to tighten sanctions. This was reported by Reuters, writes UNN.
Details
A previously unpublished Ukrainian document to be presented to the EU calls on the 27 member states to take a more aggressive and independent stance on sanctions amid uncertainty about Washington's future role.
Among the 40 pages of recommendations are proposals to adopt legislation that would speed up the confiscation of assets of sanctioned individuals in the EU and transfer those assets to Ukraine. Individuals subject to sanctions will then be able to seek compensation from Russia.
According to the document, the EU should consider a number of steps to make sanctions more effective outside the European Union, including the introduction of secondary sanctions against foreign companies that use European technologies to help Russia, as well as sanctions against buyers of Russian oil.
Such secondary sanctions, which could affect major buyers such as India and China, would be a significant step that Europe has not yet dared to take. Trump has publicly discussed the idea, but later decided not to act.
The document also calls on the EU to use majority voting on sanctions more often so that individual member states cannot block decisions that currently require unanimity.
Supplement
After talking to Putin on Monday, Trump decided not to impose new sanctions on Russia, which disappointed European leaders and Kyiv, who had been urging him for weeks to increase pressure on Moscow.
After talking to Putin, Trump spoke with Ukrainian and European leaders and told them that he did not want to impose new sanctions for the time being to give the negotiations a chance, a Reuters source said.
However, the EU and the UK announced new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, saying they still hoped the US would join. At the same time, Europeans are openly discussing ways to maintain pressure on Moscow if Washington is no longer willing to participate.
Encourage the EU
Publicly, Ukraine is trying to avoid criticism of Washington after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a stern reprimand from Trump during a visit to the White House in February.
The document emphasizes the "unprecedented" nature of the sanctions already imposed by the EU and their potential for further action. However, it also contains a harsh assessment of the Trump administration's involvement in coordinating sanctions measures.
In practice, Washington has ceased participation in almost all intergovernmental platforms dedicated to sanctions and export controls
It also notes that the US has slowed down the work of the monitoring group on compliance with price restrictions on Russian oil, disbanded the federal working group dealing with the prosecution of sanctions violators, and transferred a significant part of sanctions experts to other areas.
The document says that two potentially large US sanctions packages have already been developed - one by the government and the other by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham - but it is not known whether Trump will approve even one of them.
Uncertainty about the US position has slowed the pace of economic countermeasures and multilateral coordination, but, as the document says, this "should not encourage the European Union to ease sanctions pressure".
"On the contrary, this should encourage the EU to take the lead in this area."
Powerful blow
Ukraine fears that the US departure from the Western sanctions consensus could lead to wavering within the EU, which traditionally requires unanimity to make key decisions.
"America's withdrawal from the sanctions regime will be a powerful blow to the EU's unity. A powerful one," a senior Ukrainian government official told Reuters.
Although the EU cannot fully replace the weight of the US in economic pressure on Russia (because the main strength of US sanctions is the dominance of the dollar in world trade), still, according to Russia energy expert Craig Kennedy of the Harvard Davis Center, maintaining EU sanctions will have a great effect.
Reminder
The European Union approved a new, 17th, package of sanctions against Russia, aimed, among other things, at the Russian "shadow fleet" of tankers for oil exports, and is also preparing new restrictions against Russia, said EU High Representative Kaya Kallas.