EU Prepares 15th Package of Anti-Russian Sanctions

The European Union is discussing a new, 15th package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

This was stated in an interview with Suspilne by the new EU High Representative for Diplomacy, Kaja Kallas.

‘We are discussing a new package of sanctions to weaken Russia. I believe that we must use all the tools we have to help Ukraine and weaken Russia so that this war ends,’ she said.

Her words were confirmed by the new President of the European Council, Antonio Costa.

‘We will also increase pressure on the Russian economy and further weaken Russia's ability to wage war. We are preparing the 15th package of sanctions against the Putin regime,’ he added.

In his turn, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the EU to support sanctions against Russia's shadow tanker fleet, which have already been imposed by some individual countries.

‘A new sanctions package from the European Union is being prepared. It is important that the package is approved in the near future. There is already work by countries (in the form of) sanctions against the Russian shadow fleet. This should be supported at the level of the entire European Union. We talked about this today. It is the tanker fleet that provides Putin with the largest part of the income for the war against Ukraine,’ Zelenskyy said.

He also said that Ukraine had handed over to its European partners lists of companies that sell their products to Russia despite the sanctions.

As The Gaze previously reported, the 15th package of sanctions against Russia was first announced in October by Callas' predecessor, Josep Borrell.

On 24 June this year, the Council of the European Union agreed on the 14th package of individual and economic sanctions against Russia, targeting energy, finance and trade, and making it harder to circumvent the EU's existing restrictions.