Ukraine: EU proposes new sanctions as Kyiv mayor calls for end of ‘bloody money’
- Suggested sanctions include banning coal and certain other imports as well as preventing Moscow’s ships entering EU ports
- Move follows allegations of civilian killings by Russian troops in Bucha; Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko wants all business ties with Russia to stop
The European Union’s executive proposed sweeping new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, including a ban on coal imports, as the West responds to evidence of civilian killings in a Ukrainian town seized from Russian invaders.
The proposed sanctions, which EU member states must approve, would bar Russian imports worth 9 billion euros (US$9.8 billion) and exports to Russia worth 10 billion euros, including semiconductors and computers, and stop Russian ships entering EU ports.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was working on banning oil imports too.
“We all saw the gruesome pictures from Bucha and other areas from which Russian troops have recently left. These atrocities cannot and will not be left unanswered,” she said on Twitter.
The announcement came hours after Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko called for all business ties with Russia to be cut, halting the flow of “bloody money”.
Several European countries, including Germany, France and Italy, announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats and Moscow said it would respond in kind.
Russia, which says it launched a “special military operation” in Ukraine on February 24 to demilitarise and “denazify” its neighbour, denies targeting civilians and said the deaths were a “monstrous forgery” staged by the West.
Sanctions have isolated and crippled Russia’s economy, but Ukraine says the West needs to do much more to starve Moscow’s war machine.
“Every euro, every cent that you receive from Russia or that you send to Russia has blood, it is bloody money and the blood of this money is Ukrainian blood, the blood of Ukrainian people,” Klitschko told a conference in Geneva via video link.
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Bucha residents mourn hundreds of Ukrainians killed as Russia accused of war crimes over invasion
Europe, which gets about a third of its natural gas needs from Russia, has been wary of the economic impact a total ban on Russian energy, which Ukraine says is needed to force a peace deal, would bring.
A ban on Russian coal by the 27-nation European Union would be worth around 4 billion euros a year, von der Leyen said, tiny in comparison with last year’s 100 billion euros in oil and gas imports from Russia.
But signalling EU’s strengthening resolve, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the coal ban was the first step towards a total ban on all fossil fuel imports from Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the United States was also likely to impose further sanctions on Russia. He described a remark by US President Joe Biden that Putin should be tried for war crimes as unacceptable and unworthy.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said his country, which accuses Russia of genocide, had no choice but to negotiate to end the war, now in its sixth week, which has killed thousands, sent millions fleeing and turned cities into rubble.
“All of us, including myself, will perceive even the possibility of negotiations as a challenge,” Zelensky said in a television interview. He said it was not clear whether he and Putin would speak directly.
Russian news agency Interfax cited a deputy Russian foreign minister as saying talks, which last convened on Friday, were continuing via video link.
Ukraine said it was bracing for about 60,000 Russian reservists to be called in to reinforce Moscow’s offensive in the east, where Russia’s main targets have included the port of Mariupol and Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city.
Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces aimed to fully take over the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces claimed by Russian-backed separatists and encircle a group of Ukrainian forces.
“Russian troops have attacked Mykolayiv with cluster munitions banned by the Geneva Convention,” the general staff said in a daily update on Tuesday.
“Whole blocks of civilian buildings have come under fire, in particular, a children’s hospital. There are dead and wounded, including children.”
Reuters could not independently verify the claims.
