On Friday 24 October, leaders of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ announced their intention to increase pressure on Russia, a day after the EU adopted the 19th package of sanctions and the US announced sanctions on Russian energy (see EUROPE 13737/6).
In a joint statement issued after a meeting, the leaders stressed the importance of increasing economic pressure on Russia “from now and until a just and lasting peace for Ukraine has been secured”.
They decided to take further steps to remove “Russian oil and gas [from] the global market, end remaining imports into their territories, and deter third countries from trading in Russian oil and gas and fuelling Russia’s war effort”. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, whose country is still dependent on Russian energy, is due to travel to Washington next week to discuss energy issues with US President Donald Trump.
The leaders also agreed to take additional measures against vessels of the ‘shadow fleet’. “These would include further sanctions, steps to discourage third countries from engaging with the shadow fleet, increased information sharing as well as readiness to make use of regulatory and interdiction powers”, they said.
Strongly condemning Russia’s destruction of Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure, the leaders decided to ensure Ukraine’s energy resilience, to provide emergency aid in order to protect and rebuild the energy infrastructure and to continue providing additional military support, including air defence.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that France had decided to supply his country with additional Mirage fighter jets and air defence missiles, and that the UK would continue to support Ukraine in air defence by supplying missiles and producing interceptor drones.
The coalition members also expressed their intention to meet Ukraine’s urgent financial needs for 2026-2027, “including working up options to use the full value of immobilised Russian sovereign assets” (see EUROPE 13737/1). “This should be in addition to existing flows of bilateral military aid, which would not diminish”, they promised. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)