RT-Engels: 01-04-2025,
The EU should also apply more sanctions on Russia, the bloc’s top diplomat has said
Russian assets frozen over the Ukraine conflict should remain immobilized until the hostilities are over, a group of EU nations and the UK said on Monday, calling for additional sanctions on Moscow.
The joint statement by the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, and foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK, issued new threats against Russia and expressed readiness to “apply further pressure [on Russia] using all tools available, including by adopting new sanctions.”
“We reiterate that Russia’s assets should remain immobilized until Russia ceases its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates it for the damage caused,” the document reads, referring to the roughly $300 billion in assets belonging to Russia’s central bank that has been frozen by the West since 2022.
The assets are primarily EU, US, and UK government bonds held in a Brussels-based securities depository. Moscow has called the asset freeze “theft.”
The statement comes after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen refused to consider lifting sanctions on Russia as long as the Ukraine conflict continues. She also rejected a US-Russia-proposed maritime truce between Moscow and Kiev in the Black Sea put forward by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
During recent talks in Riyadh, Moscow and Washington discussed reviving the Black Sea Grain Initiative,