The embargo on energy imports “is also on the table”
The “atrocities” committed by the Russian Army in the kyiv region will not go unpunished. The top leaders of the European Union promised yesterday that they will act quickly to impose new punishments on Moscow, after the discovery of nearly 340 civilian bodies in Bucha. “The EU condemns in the strongest terms the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces in several Ukrainian cities, which have now been liberated,” the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.
This new package of sanctions that Brussels is already working on, the fifth since the war broke out, could include the veto of the SWIFT international payment system of more Russian banks, as well as additional punishments for oligarchs and military commanders, as confirmed yesterday by community sources. . The embargo on energy imports “is also on the table”, assured the same sources, and the French President Emmanuel Macron and the German Finance Minister, Christian Lindner, opted to act decisively against Russian “coal and oil”. .
The energy sanctions, however, have the rejection of countries like Austria -very dependent on Moscow-. “Sanctions on gas or oil would do more harm to the EU than to Russia,” Austrian Finance Minister Magnus Brunner said yesterday. In order for them to enter into force, the measures will have to be approved unanimously by the Twenty-seven, within the framework of an extraordinary high-level meeting – which does not yet have a date.
Condemnation of Moscow’s actions has been unanimous in the West. Countries like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy yesterday expressed their horror and asked that those responsible be brought before the international court in The Hague. The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, also showed his “shock” and has called for an independent investigation into what happened. The European Union and Ukraine have already formed a joint team for evidence on “war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russia on Ukrainian soil,” as confirmed by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
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