The European Union is pushing to increase sanctions pressure on Russia over the war in Ukraine by prohibiting sales of drone parts and other machines. The Wall Street Journal’s Laurence Norman reports:
European Union officials proposed a new round of sanctions on Russia on Wednesday over its invasion of Ukraine, including a ban on exports of drone engines to Russia and other potential suppliers of the machines to its military, a prohibition on investing in Russia’s mining sector and new financial restrictions.
The sanctions, the ninth package of restrictions on Russia since its February invasion of Ukraine, come days after the EU and the Group of Seven advanced democracies placed a price cap on Russian oil and after European countries began their embargo on imports of Russian crude.
However, the measures once again point to the diminishing range of sanctions targets the EU is willing to hit. Calls by some member states to sanction Russian’s nuclear industry, to ban Russian rough diamond imports from EU markets or to ban fresh energy imports from Russia aren’t in the package.
The measures come as the war in Ukraine shows little sign of winding down and with many Western economies and its Russian counterpart sliding into recession.
Western officials have argued that the cumulative impact of their restrictions will keep Russia’s economy under severe pressure for years to come and strip it of key services and technology. In Europe, however, some officials argue that Western measures are hurting their economies more than Russia’s.
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