European Union ambassadors approved on Wednesday the latest package of sanctions against Russia, banning Russian aluminum imports and imposing new export bans on Moscow.
This 16th package is now expected to be approved by EU ministers at a regular meeting next Monday, the three-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It includes new listings against shadow fleet vessels, export bans on chemicals, chrome and other products used in precision machine tools, as well as a ban on servicing oil and gas refineries, two EU diplomats said. They were granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions.
Despite last-minute concerns expressed by Greece, EU countries agreed to stop imports of Russian aluminum.
Downstream Russian products of the metal have already been blocked, and the European Commission proposed in this package to also ban primary aluminum. A certain threshold of imports would still be allowed for some time, before a full ban kicks in later.
Notably absent from the package is a full ban on Russian liquified natural gas (LNG). A group of countries had been pressing the EU executive to prohibit the energy source, worried about a recent uptick in EU purchases.
But the issue has been caught up in trade talks now just getting started with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, with Brussels holding off on barring Russian LNG until it potentially strikes a deal to buy more American LNG.
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