The European Union gave the green light this Thursday (04.07.2022) to its fifth package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, which affects the energy sector for the first time with the prohibition of imports of Russian coal and also includes an embargo of weapons to Russia and the veto on high-tech exports to that country.
According to negotiation sources, there was a strong debate about the period in which the embargo on Russian coal should come into force and that, in the end, the German position of making the measure effective in four months prevailed, compared to other countries that They preferred it to be earlier.
The new measures also include a ban on Russian wood and vodka and more sanctions against “oligarchs, Russian propaganda actors, members of the security and military apparatus, and entities in the industrial and technological sector linked to Russian aggression against Ukraine,” he said. the rotating French presidency of the Council of the EU on Twitter.
The measures were proposed on Wednesday by the European Commission after hearing evidence of atrocities committed by Russian troops in Bucha and adopted today by the member states’ ambassadors to the EU after two days debating their details. They will still have to be approved by written procedure to be published tomorrow in the official newspaper of the Union, after which they can enter into force.
The G7 also agrees to new sanctions
The G7, which brings together the world’s most industrialized economies, also approved today imposing new sanctions on Russia for the “atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces” against civilians in Ukraine. The G7 leaders decided to veto “new investments in key sectors of the Russian economy, including the energy sector”, further reduce trade and tighten restrictions against Russian banks and state-owned companies in that country, the group said in a statement. release.
The measures still do not include an embargo on Russian hydrocarbon imports for the moment, but they intend to “advance” their plans to reduce their dependence on Moscow in that field, with a “progressive exit from Russian coal.”
lgc (efe / dpa / afp)