EU diplomats on Wednesday agreed to impose further sanctions against Russia, in the lead-up to a second emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris to address the war in Ukraine.
The new measures will target Russia's metals exports and “shadow fleet” of oil tankers, as Europe maintains pressure on Moscow in the face of US President Donald Trump's overtures to the Kremlin. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he could not “sell his country” in any peace deal.
Mr Zelenskyy dismissed Mr Trump's request for $500 billion worth of minerals as “not a serious conversation”. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, meanwhile, praised Mr Trump on Wednesday for saying that previous US support of Ukraine's bid to join the Nato military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.
The new EU sanctions, which are set to be formally adopted on February 24 to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, include a ban on primary aluminium imports, sales of gaming consoles and the listing of 73 shadow fleet vessels.
“With tighter measures on circumvention, new import and export bans, and sanctions on Putin’s shadow fleet, we are closing backdoors for Russia’s war machine to operate,” EU foreign affairs minister Kaja Kallas wrote on X. “The Kremlin won’t break our resolve.”
The aluminium import ban will be phased-in a year from the official adoption of the package, which also adds 48 people and 35 entities to a sanctions list that includes asset freezes and a travel ban.
Election demand
The latest EU sanctions against Russia came as Mr Trump appeared to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin in laying the blame for the war on Ukraine by saying Mr Zelenskyy could have “done a deal” three years ago. Mr Trump also suggested that Ukraine should hold a new election as the country is currently under martial law.
Mr Zelenskyy rejected that and said the US President was living in a “disinformation space” by suggesting the Ukrainian leader's approval rating had slumped to four per cent. A poll released on Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 57 per cent of respondents trusted Mr Zelenskyy, while 37 per cent did not.
The comments by Mr Trump were described on Wednesday by a former UK defence minister, Ben Wallace, as “very similar to the Russian line”. But Britain's former prime minister Boris Johnson came to Mr Trump's defence, saying his statements were “not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action”.
France said that it found Mr Trump's statements difficult to comprehend. “We struggle to understand the American logic,” said government representative Sophie Primas. “We must demonstrate European strength in these power struggles with the US.”
Mr Trump has said that he saw no way that Russia could have allowed Ukraine to join Nato, and blamed Democratic former president Joe Biden for allegedly changing the US position on Ukraine membership.
Speaking to legislators, Mr Lavrov said: “He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous administration to draw Ukraine into Nato.
“No western leaders had ever said that, but he had said it several times. This is already a signal that he understands our position,” Mr Lavrov said.
The EU has sided with Ukraine since Russia's invasion in 2022, which Brussels describes as Mr Putin's war of aggression. “Russia can just withdraw the troops, can stop the killing of innocent people, women, children abducted. Russia is an aggressor, so Russia must step down and pay for this,” an EU Commission representative said in a press briefing on Tuesday.
Mr Trump's administration on Tuesday said it had agreed to hold more talks with Russia on ending the war in Ukraine after an initial meeting that excluded Kyiv – a departure from Washington's previous approach that rallied US allies to isolate Mr Putin.
Europe has not been included in such talks, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to call for an emergency meeting of seven European leaders as well as Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte in Paris on Monday. The talks yielded few results and laid bare European differences over the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine.
The meeting was to be followed by a second gathering on Wednesday, including Nato member Canada and Baltic states, which reportedly had expressed frustration at not being included in Monday's meeting. Only two leaders, Romania's President Ilie Bolojan and Luxembourg's Prime Minister Luc Frieden, attended the meeting in person. About 18 others connected via video call, according to the Elysee.
Yet European leaders have also made conciliatory statements towards Mr Trump, with Mr Macron telling French media that the US President is “recreating strategic ambiguity for President Putin” by using “very firm words” and creating “uncertainty” that “can help to exert pressure”.
Ms Kallas also appealed to Mr Trump when she wrote on X: “By working together with the US, we can achieve a just and lasting peace – on Ukraine’s terms.”
