The war in Ukraine continues.
A school was bombed this Sunday evening.
60 civilians died, according to President Zelensky.
A few hours later and while Europe is struggling to impose an oil embargo while the G7 promises to quickly reduce its energy dependence on Moscow, the Kingdom increases its level of trade sanctions against Russia.
The British government announced on Sunday export bans targeting Russian industry and the increase in customs tariffs, in particular on palladium.
"This significant sanctions package will inflict even more damage on the Russian war machine," International Trade Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said in a statement.
Tariffs will increase by 35 percentage points, notably for platinum and palladium - used in the automotive industry - while export bans target goods destined for the manufacturing and heavy machinery sectors in Russia, such as plastic, rubber or machinery.
“Russia is one of the main platinum and palladium producing countries and is heavily dependent on the UK to export” these products, the government stressed.
The EU skates on oil
These sanctions relate to 1.7 billion pounds of goods in value (about 2 billion euros), said the executive, bringing to more than 4 billion pounds the value of the goods targeted by trade sanctions since the invasion. of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February.
The UK has also sanctioned over 1,000 individuals and over 100 companies since the invasion.
These announcements come a few hours after bitter European debates about an embargo on oil.
These did not lead to a unanimous vote in favor - a condition for the project to pass - in particular because of the opposition of Hungary.
Negotiations between the 27 states of the European Union will resume at the beginning of the week to remove the obstacles to the proposed European embargo on Russian oil.
At the same time, the G7 held its third meeting of the year by videoconference on Sunday in the presence of the Ukrainian president.
“The entire G7 is committed to banning or phasing out imports of Russian oil,” the White House announced on Sunday.
The actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine "cover Russia and the historic sacrifices of its people with shame", the G7 countries were indignant.