Europe steps up sanctions on Russia as Putin says war is existential struggle

New measures come as Germany says it is sceptical of Chinese peace plan

Ukrainians fire a Soviet-era Grad multiple rocket launcher at Russian positions in Kharkiv. AP

The EU vowed to increase pressure on Moscow “until Ukraine is liberated” as it adopted a 10th package of sanctions on Saturday, a day after the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

The tougher measures came as German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that his government was sceptical of a Chinese peace plan to end the war, days after US President Joe Biden said he did not believe Beijing had concrete suggestions to end fighting.

“When I hear reports — and I don't know whether they are true — according to which China may be planning to supply kamikaze drones to Russia while at the same time presenting a peace plan, then I suggest we judge China by its actions and not its words,” Mr Pistorius told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

February 24 will be a year since Russia started the Ukraine war. The National picks out the most powerful images from the conflict. AFP

A member of Ukraine's 79th Air Assault Brigade fires a rocket-propelled grenade at Russian positions near Marinka in February. Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses MPs in Westminster Hall, London, in February 2023. Getty Images

Destroyed buildings 32km west of the front lines in Donetsk in January. Getty Images

An anti-aircraft gun in January fires at Russian positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk. Reuters

Destruction in the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk. AFP

A Ukrainian artilleryman discards an empty shell on the outskirts of Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine, in December 2022. AFP

Children receive presents from a Ukrainian soldier dressed as Santa on Christmas Eve in Sloviansk. Getty Images

More than 1,000 missiles and rockets fired by Russian forces collected for cataloguing in Kharkiv in December 2022. Getty Images

The Metro provides shelter as Russia launches another missile attack on Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, in December 2022. Getty Images

Children at a PE class in Kyiv after Russia abandoned its attempt to seize the capital in November 2022. Getty Images

A sniper searches for Russian positions on the bank of the Dnipro river in Kherson in November 2022. Getty Images

Graffiti by Banksy on a wall among the debris in Borodyanka in November 2022. Getty Images

Ukrainian flags flutter around graves in a cemetery for soldiers killed in action in Kharkiv in October 2022. Getty Images

Parts of a drone, which Ukrainian authorities said was Iranian-made, after a Russian strike in Kyiv in October 2022. Reuters

An elderly woman is helped across a damaged bridge in Bakhmut in October 2022. Getty Images

Fuel tanks ablaze on damaged sections of the Kerch bridge in Crimea, in October 2022. Reuters

A destroyed bridge makes crossing the Donets river difficult, in Staryi Saltiv, east of Kharkiv, in September 2022. AFP

Firefighters at a thermal power plant in Kharkiv damaged by a Russian missile strike in September 2022. Reuters

Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr with his daughter Nikole at Lviv railway station in August 2022. Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then-British prime minister Boris Johnson read a plaque in Kyiv in August 2022 dedicated to the latter for his support. Getty Images

Destroyed Russian military equipment on Khreshchatyk street in Kyiv. The materiel was turned into an open-air military museum ahead of Ukraine's Independence Day on August 24. AFP

Shakhtar Donetsk v Metalist Kharkiv kicks off the Ukrainian Premier League season in August 2022 amid fears of bomb and missile alerts. EPA

Ukrainian servicemen fire an American-made 155mm M777 howitzer in July 2022 in the Kharkiv area. EPA

A bomb crater on the Antonovsky bridge across the Dnipro river in Kherson, July 2022. AFP

Maksym and Andrii with plastic guns at a 'checkpoint' they set up while playing in Kharkiv, July 2022. AP

Ukrainian troops on Snake Island in June 2022. Reuters

A woman evacuated from an area of conflict in June 2022 contemplates what the next move might be. AP

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Kyiv in June 2022. Getty Images

Graves in Irpin cemetery, May 2022. Getty Images

A Ukrainian soldier trapped within the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works complex in Mariupol in May 2022. Reuters

The wreckage of a Russian helicopter in a bomb-cratered field in Biskvitne, May 2022. Getty Images

A Ukrainian army officer inspects a grain warehouse shelled by Russian forces in May 2022 near Novovorontsovka, Kherson. Getty Images

A boy from Mariupol arriving at an evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia in May 2022. Getty Images

A Russian serviceman on guard outside Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in May 2022. AFP

Oksana searches for salvageable items on the destroyed second floor of her home in Hostomel, April 2022. Getty Images

A floral memorial wall in Lviv for Ukrainian civilians killed during the Russian invasion, April 2022. Getty Images

People fleeing Lviv, eastern Ukraine, in April 2022, wait for a bus that will take them to Poland. Getty Images

A Russian soldier patrols a bombed Mariupol theatre in April 2022, as Moscow intensified its campaign to take the strategic port city. AFP

A Ukrainian celebrates success in Hostomel in April 2022. Getty Images

Julia Palovskaya reads to children during an air raid drill in the basement shelter at a preschool in Lviv, April 2022. Getty Images

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Bucha in April 2022, where hundreds of bodies were found in the street and it was claimed the Russian leadership was responsible for killing civilians. AFP

Oleh Smolin, 23, who suffered leg injuries from Russian shelling in April 2022, in hospital in Chuhuiv. Getty Images

Fleeing refugees arrive at the border train station of Zahony, Hungary, in March 2022. Getty Images

A father says goodbye to his daughter on an evacuation train about to leave Odesa in March 2022. AFP

Ukrainians under a destroyed bridge as they try to cross the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv in March 2022. AP

People cram into Kyiv station to catch trains to Poland or to western parts of Ukraine, shortly after the initial invasion in February 2022. Getty Images

A demonstration in support of Ukraine in Trafalgar Square, London, February 2022 . Getty Images

Russian army vehicles in Armyansk, Crimea, in February 2022. AFP

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 25, 2022, in a video on Facebook. He said 'we are all here', shortly after the Russian invasion began. AFP

A residential building damaged by a missile strike in Kyiv in February 2022. Getty Images

A metro station in Kyiv in February 2022, crowded with people trying to escape the invasion. AFP

A police officer addresses people gathered to protest against the invasion of Ukraine, in central Saint Petersburg, Russia, February 2022. AFP

A protester in support of Ukraine, in Berlin, Germany, in February 2022. Getty Images

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to repel an attack in Ukraine's Lugansk region on February 24, 2022. AFP

Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on February 24, 2022, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion. AFP

A mass exodus from Kyiv after pre-offensive missile strikes by Russian armed forces on February 24, 2022. Getty Images

Security personnel inspect the remains of a shell in Kyiv on February 24, 2022, soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine. AFP

CCTV footage shows Russian military equipment crossing a Crimea border checkpoint on February 24, 2022. AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin early on February 24, 2022, when he announced a 'military operation' in Ukraine. AFP

Mr Pistorius has taken a tougher line on Russia's actions in Ukraine than his predecessor Christine Lambrecht, who left the role in January. Mr Pistorius has authorised countries that have purchased the German-made Leopard 2 tank to donate some of the vehicles to Ukraine, in contrast to Ms Lambrecht who held off making a decision on the issue.

Mr Pistorius’s remarks came as the EU stepped up sanctions on Moscow, attempting to cut off access to components needed for precision-guided weapons and cut into Moscow’s revenues.

“We now have the most far-reaching sanctions ever — depleting Russia's war arsenal and biting deep into its economy,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter. The bloc was turning up the pressure on those trying to circumvent EU sanctions, she added.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned the bloc would continue to pile more sanctions on Moscow.

“We will continue to increase pressure on Russia — and we will do it for as long as needed, until Ukraine is liberated from the brutal Russian aggression,” he said.

Mr Borrell said the latest sanctions tackled the banking sector, Moscow's access to technology that can be used for civilian and military purposes and advanced technologies.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the new punitive measures as “new powerful steps against the military industry and the financial sector of the terrorist state”.

Speaking in his nightly video address, Mr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was working to extend sanctions even further to cover Russia's nuclear sector, the state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom “and all those involved in the missile programme and the nuclear blackmail of the terrorist state”.

The new EU package adds electronic components used in Russian weapons systems retrieved on the battlefield, including drones, missiles, helicopters, as well as specific rare earth materials, electronic integrated circuits and thermal cameras to the list of banned exports.

It also imposes tighter export restrictions on another 96 entities for supporting Russia's military and industrial complex, including for the first time seven Iranian entities manufacturing military drones used by Moscow.

Additional restrictions are imposed on imports of goods which generate significant revenues for Russia, such as asphalt and synthetic rubber.

Separately, the EU imposed sanctions on 11 individuals and seven entities linked to the Wagner group, whose mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine but are also involved in conflicts in African countries such as Mali.

In Moscow, Mr Putin is increasingly presenting the war as a make-or-break moment in Russian history — and saying that he believes the very future of Russia and its people is in peril.

“I do not even know if such an ethnic group as the Russian people will be able to survive in the form in which it exists today,” Mr Putin said in televised remarks on Saturday, arguing the West had a plan to break up the state.

The US has denied that it wants to destroy Russia, while Mr Biden has warned that a conflict between Russia and Nato could trigger the Third World War, though he has also said Mr Putin should not remain in power.