While visiting Ukraine on Friday, 5 September, President of the European Council António Costa promised that the EU would strengthen its sanctions against Russia.
Pointing out that Russian bombs continue to hit Ukrainian cities, Mr Costa believes, “Only more pressure can change this course”. The president of the European Council explained, “[W]e are ready to do more. We are working with the United States and other like-minded partners to increase our pressure through further direct and secondary sanctions.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky felt that sanctions against Russia and high tariffs on trade with those who support Moscow were “needed”.
Mr Costa announced that a team from the European Commission was travelling to Washington to coordinate sanctions with the Americans.
According to Mr Zelensky, Europeans and Americans will discuss ways to stop energy trade with Russia. He recalled that during a discussion with US President Donald Trump the previous day, the latter had said that he was “dissatisfied with Europeans buying Russian oil and gas.” He added, “That also concerns the policy of certain countries, such as Slovakia and Hungary and probably some other European countries.” According to Mr Zelensky, “This must be stopped”.
“As President Trump [...] stressed, it’s very important to stop [...] the Russian capacity to continue this war by buying gas and oil. We reduced, at the European Union level, by 80% the consumption of gas and oil from Russia. It remains [at] 20%, and we need to work on this. [T]he large part of this 20% is consumption precisely in Hungary”, explained Mr Costa. So, in his view, the best way to expedite the end of this war is for Hungary to stop importing Russian gas. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)