The EU and UK hit Russia with new sanctions. Moscow’s energy revenue and spies are targeted.

18.07.2025    Boston Herald    6 views
The EU and UK hit Russia with new sanctions. Moscow’s energy revenue and spies are targeted.

By LORNE COOK Associated Press BRUSSELS AP The European Union and Britain on Friday ramped up pressure on Russia over its war on Ukraine targeting Moscow s ability sector shadow fleet of aging oil tankers and military intelligence utility with new sanctions The message is clear Europe will not back down in its encouragement for Ukraine The EU will keep raising the pressure until Russia ends its war EU foreign guidelines chief Kaja Kallas mentioned after the bloc agreed its new measures including a new oil price cap Related Articles Christian patriarchs make rare visit to Gaza after deadly Israeli strike on church China pledges to crack down on illicit exports of rare earths urges US to lift more commerce controls In the present day in History July Nadia s perfect Britain will lower its voting age to in a bid to strengthen democracy Zelenskyy appoints a new prime minister for a war-weary nation Kallas revealed it s one of its strongest sanctions packages against Russia to date linked to the war now in its fourth year It comes as European countries start to buy U S weapons for Ukraine to help the country better defend itself Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the new measures describing them as a timely and necessary step amid intensified Russian attacks All infrastructure of Russia s war must be blocked Zelenskyy declared adding that Ukraine will synchronize its sanctions with the EU and introduce its own additional measures soon Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed off the EU move saying that we consider such unilateral restrictions unlawful At the same time we have acquired certain immunity from sanctions We have adapted to living under sanctions Peskov commented in a conference call with reporters We will need to analyze the new package in order to minimize negative consequences from it The U K has Russia s spies in its sights The U K meanwhile imposed sanctions on units of Russia s military intelligence system GRU Also added to the list were officers the U K noted helped to plan a bomb attack on a theatre in southern Ukraine in and to target the family of a former Russian spy who was later poisoned with a nerve agent Hundreds of civilians sheltering in the theatre in Mariupol were killed in March shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilize Europe undermine Ukraine s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens U K Foreign Secretary David Lammy reported NATO also condemned Russia s cyberattacks saying in a message that we will respond to these at a time and in a manner of our choosing in accordance with international law and in coordination with our international partners including the EU Targeting Russian potency interests The European Commission the EU s executive branch had proposed to lower the oil price cap from to which is lower than the arena price to target Russia s vast vigor revenues The member countries decided to set the price per barrel at just under The EU had hoped to get major international powers in the Group of Seven countries involved in the price cap to broaden the impact but the Trump administration could not be brought onboard Oil income is the linchpin of Russia s business sector allowing President Vladimir Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a currency collapse A new import ban was also imposed in an attempt to close a loophole allowing Russia to indirectly export crude oil via a number of non-EU countries The EU also targeted the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Germany to prevent Putin from generating any revenue from them in future notably by discouraging would-be investors Russian vigor giant Rosneft s refinery in India was hit as well The pipelines were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany but are not in operation On top of that the new EU sanctions targeted Russia s banking sector with the aim of limiting the Kremlin s ability to raise funds or carry out financial transactions Two Chinese banks were added to the list Agreeing sanctions is getting harder The EU has slapped several rounds of sanctions on Russia since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine in February More than executives and entities often authorities agencies banks companies or organizations have been hit with asset freezes and movement bans But each round of sanctions is getting harder to agree as measures targeting Russia bite the economies of the member nations Slovakia held up the latest package over concerns about proposals to stop Russian gas supplies which it relies on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz explained he had spoken to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico almost daily in newest days to convince him to change his mind But it took a very long time again the processes are too sluggish he explained reporters in Berlin The last raft of EU sanctions imposed on May targeted almost ships in Russia s sanction-busting shadow fleet of tankers On Friday more ships were blocked from European ports locks and from ship-to-ship transfers bringing the total number of vessels now sanctioned to more than Illia Novikov in Kyiv Geir Moulson in Berlin and Emma Burrows in London contributed to this account

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