EU will sanction strategic Russian sectors after the invasion of Ukraine

The Heads of State and Government of the European Union (EU) will agree tonight at an extraordinary summit in Brussels new sanctions against “strategic sectors” Russians after the invasion of Ukraine, which for community leaders means “darkest hours for europe” since World War II.

The leaders of the European institutions condemned the beginning of the Russian invasion this morning in Ukraine, a “barbarian attack”, according to the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and a “cataclysm”, in the words of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel.

Are “These are the darkest hours for Europe since the end of World War II.“, given that “a major nuclear power has attacked a neighboring country and is threatening any other state that might come to its rescue with retaliation”, assured the high representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.

“It is not only the greatest violation of the international order, but a violation of the basic principles of human coexistence. It is costing many lives with unknown consequences before us”, continued the head of European diplomacy.

The German leader assured that the EU and its allies are not going to allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to “tear down the security architecture that has provided peace and stability to Europe for the past decades.”

“We will not allow President Putin to replace the rule of law with the rule of force and cruelty“, he claimed.

sanctions

The summit that European leaders will hold today was convened yesterday before the Russian attack, but the work that the EU has been doing in recent weeks to prepare the sanctions will allow them to agree on measures against “strategic sectors” Russians, such as banking, blocking their access to the European market, and energy, after the invasion of Ukraine.

“These sanctions will suppress Russia’s economic growth, increase borrowing costs, increase inflation, intensify capital outflows and gradually erode its industrial base.”, Von der Leyen said.

The new sanctions package is also intended to “isolate Russian industry from the technology they desperately need to build their future”, explained the head of the Community Executive, who added that the restrictive measures will be “designed” against “ability“of the Kremlin”to finance the war”.

The EU will agree on these sanctions in coordination with the Western allies and the G7, according to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and which will be formally approved tomorrow by the European foreign ministers at an extraordinary meeting.

The ambassadors of the European countries to the EU met today to prepare the package of sanctions and it was clear that the Twenty-seven agree on the “need to move up a gear” to the sanctions that the EU approved yesterday, assured diplomatic sources.

A first package that the EU countries approved after the decree that Putin signed on Monday recognizing the independence of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and that already affects, among others, the Defense Minister, the Russian president’s chief of staff, Vladimir Putin, and the military leadership.

The package of sanctions that they prepare will be the “more massive and hard than we have ever adopted” and if Putin does not back down, Russia will look “subjected to unprecedented isolationBorrell said.

The sources consulted by EFE pointed, however, to the “open question” of how powerful these sanctions will be, with some countries promoting stronger measures and others, such as Italy, Germany or Cyprus, who want to leave certain sanctions out of the package that will be approved tonight.

Diplomatic sources also highlighted that the European External Action Service has indicated that “the oligarchs” Russians would be left out of the target of the sanctions that will be approved today despite the fact that some Member States had asked to include them.