The EU has agreed a new package of sanctions against Russia targeting the country’s oil and aluminium exports.
The measures will include a ban on aluminium exports to the bloc that will be introduced in phases, while existing measures restricting the import of crude oil are to be tightened, according to Politico.
The latter target Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ of oil tankers, which the country uses to ship its energy exports despite Western restrictions.
Other targets for the sanctions include Russian banks and other companies, as well as individuals judged to be helping Russia wage war in Ukraine.
An EU diplomat told the FT:
“We keep supporting Ukraine and we keep sanctioning the Russian aggressor, because this is the right thing to do, preserving international rules and order, defending sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, emphasised that the EU is “committed to keep up the pressure on the Kremlin” on Twitter/X.
European leaders – including von der Leyen, French president Emmanuel Macron and UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer – met in Paris on Monday (17 February) to discuss how to continue supporting Ukraine, following US president Donald Trump’s attempt to seek a peace deal with Russia without the involvement of either Ukraine or Europe.
‘Incredible opportunities’
The new sanctions package comes following a meeting of US secretary of state Marco Rubio with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi Arabia yesterday (18 February) to open discussions around ending the war in Ukraine.
According to AP News, the talks yielded an agreement to restore staffing at the Russian embassy in Washington DC and the American embassy in Moscow as well as to consider closer economic cooperation between the two countries.
Rubio stated that an agreement to end the war could “unlock the door” for “incredible opportunities that hopefully will be good for the world and also improve our relations in the long term”.
Trump has suggested that his country could take a “50% cut” of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as a condition for helping to end the war. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that around half of the country’s deposits of the minerals are in regions currently occupied by Russia.
Reuters has reported that direct discussions between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin over the war could take place as early as this month.
Return to Russia?
The director of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dimitriev, has gone as far as to suggest US companies that ended their business in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine could return to doing business there as early as this year. Dimitriev did not provide any evidence for this speculation.
Immediately after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, many US companies withdrew their businesses from Russia.
Speaking to Russian state news outlet TASS, he said that he “expects a number of American companies to return to the Russian market in the second quarter of 2025”, noting however that “the return process for American companies will not be easy, as many niches are already taken”.
He said that major US oil firms had enjoyed “very successful business in Russia”, and which he suggested would “at some point” want to continue that business.
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