UPDATED: EU goes after Putin and Lavrov holdings over Ukraine – official
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BRUSSELS, Feb 25 (Reuters) – European Union envoys meeting in Brussels to work out details of sanctions against Moscow cleared by the bloc’s leaders on Thursday decided to freeze assets held in Europe by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, an official said.
The European Commission on Friday warned Moscow that the European Union could impose more sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, a day after EU leaders agreed on a robust package of measures.
“When it comes to the sequencing of packages we have always said we have a massive package prepared and we will be applying this package in a progressive way, responding to concrete actions by Russia, and we are not at the end,” Commission spokesman Peter Stano told a daily news conference.
European Union foreign ministers will thrash out details on Friday of sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine after leaders of the bloc agreed on a robust package of measures to ensure that President Vladimir Putin “must and will fail”.
Ukrainian president urges EU to toughen sanctions on Russia
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Europe on Friday to act more quickly and forcefully in imposing sanctions on Moscow for invading Ukraine, accusing western allies of politicking as Moscow’s forces advanced on Kyiv.
“Europe has enough strength to stop this aggression,” Zelenskiy said, adding that everything from banning Russians from entering the European Union to cutting Moscow off from SWIFT to an oil embargo should be on the table.
“You still can stop this aggression. You have to act swiftly,” he said.
Foreign ministers were due to convene in Brussels for an emergency session from 3 p.m. (1400 GMT) to settle measures broadly agreed in principle at the emergency summit overnight.
Russia launched its invasion on Thursday and its troops advanced on Kyiv on Friday, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded with the international community to do more, saying sanctions announced so far were not enough.
The leaders’ agreement in principle meant the bloc is joining the United States and others in taking steps such as curbing Russia’s access to technologies.
However, they opted not to cut Russia off from the SWIFT global interbank payments system.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, hosting a meeting of EU counterparts in Paris on Friday to discuss the economic consequences, said this remained an option, but only as a last resort.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said European sanctions against Russia will lead to cost increases, but the bloc would be able to protect its economies against the effects of further inflation.
The Dutch and Luxembourg prime ministers, Mark Rutte and Xavier Bettel, said the measures agreed with fellow leaders were very substantial, hitting Russia hard in many sectors.
Putin had done everything he could to divide Europe, Rutte said, but he had only managed the opposite.
Bettel said in the early hours of Friday that the most emotional moment of the EU summit was when Zelenskiy addressed the room remotely from Ukraine.
“He told us he doesn’t know whether he will be able to speak with us another time so it’s tough. We have to know how serious the situation is in Ukraine,” he said.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Leigh Thomas, Jan Strupczewski in Paris, Bart Meijer in Amsterdam; Writing by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by John Chalmers)
