The EU risks losing its reputation as a strong political player if it does not decide on tougher sanctions against Russia, said Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
There are a number of important sanctions that the European Union has not yet imposed against Russia , said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba in an interview with The Economist .
The Minister rebuked the EU for its lack of political will and stressed that “half-measures” were not enough to stop the war in Ukraine.
“In the last ten days, I have seen some fatigue from sanctions in some European countries. This sanction fatigue is masked by the arguments: “we have to wait and see how the current sanctions work; we do not need to rush with new sanctions until we fully understand the impact of the sanctions already imposed; we cannot impose these sanctions because they will do us more harm.” than Russia “. What we saw at the beginning of the war was the growth of the European Union as a powerful player that could make a difference. What I see in the last ten days is that the EU is rolling back to its normal state, when it cannot decide to act quickly. It's unfortunate, “Kuleba said.
Sanctions that are not enough to fully influence the Russian Federation:
- Disconnect the Central Bank of Russia and all Russian banks from SWIFT. The EU refuses to do so because “some Russian banks need to stay connected to SWIFT to pay for electricity.” In fact, for this purpose, you can leave only one bank connected – for example, Gazprombank, and all the others, including the largest Sberbank can be disconnected.
- Close European ports for Russian ships and transit of Russian goods. According to Kuleba, there is no clear explanation why this should not be done and “no one seems to mind.”
- Impose an embargo on Russian gas and oil. “Some countries are really dependent on Russian gas and oil, and they can't just give them up in one day. But then, at least, come up with a plan for how you are going to reduce your dependence and start paying less so as not to sponsor the Russian military machine, ”Kuleba said.
- Resolve the issue of so-called “politically important people” in order to impose sanctions not only against Russian oligarchs, but also against other members of the big team of “Putinism”.
Read also: The Foreign Minister of Ukraine calls for sanctions against Russian TV propagandists
Earlier in their article for The Hill, US national security experts Keith Alexander and Jamil Jaffer wrote that no matter how strong the economic sanctions against Russia are, they will not be able to stop the war in the near future. The only way, in their opinion, to cease fire is to help Ukraine close the skies .
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