The UK and Europe slashed Russia with fresh sanctions on Tuesday, a day after the phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin yielded almost no results to end the three-year-old war in Ukraine.
The UK Foreign Office said the sanctions would targets entities “supporting Russia’s military machine, energy exports and information war, as well as financial institutions helping to fund Putin’s invasion of Ukraine”. The Foreign Office reminded that Putin rejected the US-proposed 30-day unconditional ceasefire already agreed to by Ukraine and voiced by Donald Trump during the two-hour-long phone conversation on Monday.
“We have made clear again and again that we simply expect one thing from Russia now: namely, a ceasefire, unconditional and immediate,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said while commenting on the sanctions. “We welcome the fact that Ukraine is still prepared to do this. We note with disappointment that Russia has not yet taken this decisive step, and we will have to react to this,” Wadephul went on saying.
After the announcement of sanctions, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the EU had approved these sanctions targeting Russia’s shadow fleet. “The longer Russia wagers the war, the tougher our response,” she stressed, adding that more sanctions were in the pipeline. Russia has been relying on its so-called shadow fleet of about 200 vessels after Western countries imposed sanctions on its oil industry following February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed fresh sanctions against Russia, stating in social media on Tuesday that “It is important to severely restrict the Russian tanker fleet, which serves to finance killings, as well as all schemes that Russia uses to build up its military industry.”
Stating that the war must end on negotiating table, Zelenskiy also stressed that there must be realistic proposals on the table and called for more pressure on Russia. “We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently. Sanctions matter, and I am grateful to everyone who makes them more tangible for the perpetrators of the war,” he went on saying.
Diplomatic efforts spearheaded by Trump administration and Ukraine’s Western allies have yielded no results in ending the war, including last week’s direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in Istanbul, Turkiye. The announcement of new sanctions underlined that Trump’s mediation efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war has failed.
