BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Thursday heaped more economic sanctions on Russia, adding to U.S. President Donald the previous day against the Russian oil industry.
It is a broadened effort to choke off the revenue that funds and to force President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war.
The steps are a triumph for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has long campaigned for the international community to punish Russia more comprehensively for attacking his country.
“We waited for this. God bless, it will work. And this is very important,” the Ukrainian leader said in Brussels, where EU countries attending a summit announced the latest round of Russia sanctions.
Despite in recent months, the war shows no sign of ending after more than three years of fighting, and European leaders are about the threat from Russia.
Ukrainian forces have largely held Russia’s bigger army at bay in a along a roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line that snakes along eastern and southern Ukraine. Almost daily Russian long-range strikes have taken aim at ahead of the bitter winter, while Ukrainian forces have and manufacturing plants.
Energy revenue is the , allowing Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a .
The EU measures target Russian oil and gas, of hundreds of aging tankers that are dodging sanctions, and Russia’s financial sector. Also, a new system for limiting the movement of Russian diplomats within the 27-nation EU will be introduced.
Zelenskyy urged more nations to punish Russia. “This is a good signal to other countries in the world to join the sanctions,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Senior officials in Europe and the United States have debated for months over how best to crank up pressure on the Kremlin.
The new EU measures took almost a month to decide. The 27-nation bloc has already slapped of sanctions against Russia over the war, but getting final agreement on whom and what to target can take weeks. Moscow has also proved adept at sidestepping sanctions.
The U.S. sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil came after Trump said that his with Putin was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time,” in the latest twist in Trump’s hot-and-cold efforts to end the war as Putin refuses to budge from his demands.
In what appeared to be a public reminder of Russian atomic arsenals, Putin on Wednesday of the country’s strategic nuclear forces.
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