Ukraine will ask the European Union next week to consider great new steps to isolate Moscow, including the preparation of Russian assets and bring sanctions for some buyers of Russian oil, since the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has retired from the adjusted sanctions.
A previously not declared Ukrainian Ukrainian paper that will be presented to the EU asks that the 27 -member block take a more aggressive and independent position on the sanctions as uncertainty hangs on Washington’s future role.
Among the 40 pages of recommendations were the calls to adopt legislation that would accelerate the seizure of EU assets of sanctioned individuals and send them to Ukraine. Those under sanctions could seek compensation of Russia.
The EU must consider a variety of steps so that its sanctions are applied with more force beyond its own territory, including the orientation of foreign companies that use their technology to help Russia and “the introduction of secondary sanctions to Russian oil buyers.”
Such secondary sanctions, which could affect large buyers such as India and China, would be an important step that Europe has been reluctant to take. Trump had publicly discussed this before making the decision not to act for now.
The White Paper also requires that the EU considers using majority rule decision making on sanctions, to prevent individual member states from blocking measures that otherwise require unanimity.
After talking with Putin on Monday, Trump chose not to impose new sanctions on Russia, bets of European leaders and kyiv who had presented it for weeks to increase pressure on Moscow.
Trump spoke with the Ukrainian and European leaders after his call with Putin and told them that he did not want to impose sanctions now and give time to make conversations, a person familiar with the conversation said Reuters
Anyway, the EU and Great Britain imposed additional sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, saying that they still expect Washington to join them. But Europeans openly discuss ways in which they can maintain pressure on Moscow if Washington is no longer prepared to participate.
‘Catalyze the EU’
Publicly, Ukraine has tried to avoid any indication of criticism of Washington since President Volodymyr Zelenskiy received a Trump dress at the White House in February.
The White Paper of Sanctions emphasizes the “unprecedented” sanctions imposed by the EU until now and speaks its potential to do more. It also includes a marked evaluation of the Trump administration commitment with coordination efforts so far.
“Today, in practice, Washington has stopped participating in almost all intergovernmental platforms focused on sanctions and export control,” he said.
Washington had slowed the work in the monitoring group to enforce the pricing limits in Russian oil, dissolved a federal working group focused on prosecuting violations of sanctions and reallocating a significant number of experts in sanctions to other sectors, he added.
He pointed out that two US sanctions packages had been made, one by the government and another by Senator Pro-Trump Lindsey Graham, but that it was “uncertain” if Trump would sign with any of them.
The uncertainty about the position of the United States had slowed the rhythm of economic countermeasures and multilateral coordination, but “should not lead the European Union to relieve the pressure of sanctions,” he said.
“On the contrary, I should catalyze the EU to assume a main role in this domain.”
‘Great attack’
Ukraine is worried that Washington moves away from the Western consensus on sanctions can also cause hesitation in the EU, which traditionally requires consensus for important decisions.
“American withdrawal of the sanctions regime [would] Be a great attack in the EU unit. Huge, “said a senior Ukrainian government official Reuters.
The EU cannot completely replace the weight of the US. UU. By applying economic pressure on Russia. Much of the impact of US sanctions comes from the domain of the dollar in global trade, which the euro cannot match.
Even so, the relief of the sanctions of the United States for Russia would not stimulate a significant performance of foreign investors and investments if Europe kept firm, said Craig Kennedy, a Russian energy expert at the Davis Center, Harvard.
