London – Without waiting for Washington, the European Union and Great Britain announced on Tuesday a new series of sanctions against Russia, less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchanged a friendly telephone call, although unsuccessful at the end of the war in Ukraine.
The measures will retrieve the so -called “shadow fleet” of Moscow – approximately 200 ships used to transport Russian oil exports worldwide – the 27 nations and London block have declared in separate declarations. They are the 17th set of European sanctions imposed on Russia since it invaded its neighbor in 2022, said the EU.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a position on X that it was “time to intensify the pressure on Russia to cause the cease-fire”.
Coordinated efforts have come in direct response to Russian drone attacks on Ukraine during the weekend, British Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a separate statement published by his government on Tuesday. “The delay in peace efforts will only redouble our determination to help Ukraine defend itself and use our sanctions to restrict the Putin war machine,” he added.
Thanking his European allies, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a night speech that it was “important that America continues to be involved in the peace process”.
“Russia fears American participation,” he said, adding that many lives could be saved if the United States “presses Putin to end the war”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the Kremlin would never bow against “ultimatums”.
The sanctions were announced without support measures from the United States, despite an intense lobbying of European leaders so that the White House made it if Putin rejected a cease-fire.
Trump chose not to impose his own sanctions on Russia after a two -hour phone call with Putin on Monday, in which he dropped his previous insistence on a 30 -day truce and suggested that he could completely start from his negotiations to end the war that he had promised to finish the “day” of his second presidential term.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, told a conference hearing on Tuesday that the White House would continue to push an existing bill which could slap a price of 500% on the buyers of Russian oil and gas exports if there was no progress in a peace agreement.
But, he added that Trump “thinks that at the moment, you are starting to threaten sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there is value in us by speaking and driving them to go to the table.”
Earlier this week, Trump attracted the Pope Leo of American origin to the conflict, suggesting that the Vatican could play a more important role in the accommodation of negotiations.
While uncertainty drags on the future role of Washington, Reuters reported on Wednesday that Ukraine would present a white paper to the EU calling for more aggressive measures against Moscow, in particular by entering Russian assets and providing sanctions to certain Russian oil buyers.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said dozens of people had been injured early Wednesday by Russian drone attacks against the cities of Kharkiv, Sumy and kyiv.
Moscow has also published Putin images visiting Western Russian Kursk region on Tuesday for the first time since its forces regained control of the Ukrainian forces.
