EU Prepares Tougher Russia Sanctions if Putin Ignores Ceasefire, Says Merz

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says the European Union is ready to impose tougher sanctions on Russia if no progress is made this week in ending the war in Ukraine.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to Reuters.

Merz was speaking at a press conference with his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis, during which he touched on the topic of a peaceful settlement in Ukraine.

"We are waiting for Putin's agreement and we agree that if there is no real progress this week, we want to work together at the European level to significantly increase sanctions," Merz said.

"We will look at other areas, such as the energy sector, as well as the financial market," he added.

Merz noted that EU leaders had agreed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he could attend talks with Russia in Istanbul this week, provided that Russia stops bombing civilians in Ukraine.

Expressing his respect for Zelenskyy's willingness to compromise if it helps to achieve a truce, Merz added: "I believe that further compromises and concessions are no longer reasonable."

On Saturday, Germany, France, the UK and Poland called on Russia to call for a 30-day ceasefire starting on Monday. If Russia does not agree to a ceasefire on 12 May, they threatened new tough sanctions.

The German government stated that if a ceasefire was not established in Ukraine by the end of Monday, Berlin, together with its European partners, would begin the process of preparing new sanctions against Russia.

However, on 13 May, it became known that European leaders were ready to wait until a possible meeting between the President of Ukraine and the Kremlin leader in Turkey before moving to new sanctions.

As The Gaze reported earlier, the eight Nordic and Baltic countries that make up the NB8 format have called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to an immediate and unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine.