The European Union is ready to take a tougher stance.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced this Thursday from kyiv that the 27 are planning new sanctions against Russia.
This decision will be taken on the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“By February 24, exactly one year after the start of the invasion, we aim to put in place the tenth sanctions package,” she announced at a joint press conference in the Ukrainian capital. with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"Today, Russia is paying a heavy price because our sanctions are eroding its economy, setting it back a generation," she said, as Brussels, the European capital, has been in place for almost one year a rain of sanctions to limit the revenues of Russia intended to support its invasion.
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One of the most striking is the capping of the price of Russian oil for export at 60 dollars, around 55 euros.
According to the President of the Commission, this limitation set at the beginning of December by the European Union, the G7 and Australia, “already costs Russia around 160 million euros per day”.
In early December, the EU also implemented an embargo on Russian crude oil transported by sea.
This will extend from Sunday to the purchase of Russian refined petroleum products and the G7 countries will also cap the price of these products.
Zelensky calls for quick decisions
Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, calls on Europe to adopt “more quickly” new sanctions against Russia.
"We see today that the pace of sanctions in Europe has slowed down a bit," he said.
“The faster and more qualitatively this task will be done, the closer we will be to defeating Russian aggression.
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Asked moreover about recent anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, a key issue for the country in the midst of war and for its future membership of the EU, Ursula von der Leyen welcomed, alongside Volodymyr Zelensky, the "rapid reaction at the level policy" so that this struggle has "tangible results".
"I am reassured to see the anti-corruption bodies on alert and quickly detecting cases of corruption," she said.
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian authorities carried out searches in the homes of personalities, including a known oligarch, and in administrations in connection with cases of corruption, an evil which is eating away at the country.
The raids came a week after a string of senior officials were sacked over a corruption case involving army supplies.
This is the first scandal of this magnitude since the start of the Russian invasion.
Brussels, whose financial aid to kyiv has been significant for almost a year, has made the fight against corruption a major criterion if Ukraine wants to hope one day to enter the European bloc.
Moreover, the United States and the Europeans would take a very dim view if military or financial aid to the Ukrainian war effort could be diverted.
