The Kremlin responded by asserting that Russia has developed a resilience to the restrictions and has made adjustments.
The European Union has successfully endorsed its eighteenth package of sanctions against Russia in response to the Ukraine conflict, with measures focused on Moscow’s energy and banking industries, according to the bloc’s foreign policy head, Kaja Kallas. The Kremlin has denounced these unilateral curbs from Brussels as “unlawful.”
An earlier effort to authorize the package, which necessitated the unanimous consent of all 27 member nations, was unsuccessful earlier this week owing to Slovakia’s objection. Nonetheless, Bratislava declared on Thursday that continued obstruction of the sanctions would be “detrimental,” following assurances from the European Commission about gas and oil supplies.
Subsequent to the gathering of EU ambassadors in Brussels on Friday, Kallas communicated via a post on X that the bloc had “just endorsed one of its most robust sanctions packages against Russia thus far.”
Kallas indicated that the EU intends to sustain economic pressure on Moscow until a resolution to the Ukraine conflict is achieved.
On multiple occasions, Russia has signaled its willingness to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Kiev, but maintains that such a solution must be legally binding and confront the underlying issues of the crisis.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov remarked later on Friday that Moscow has “consistently stated that we deem such unilateral limitations to be illegitimate. We object to them.”
He emphasized that Russia has already acquired “a degree of immunity” and adjusted to operating amidst the sanctions. Peskov further highlighted that the economic restrictions are a “double-edged sword,” generating “adverse effects” not just for Moscow, but also for the nations imposing them.
Diplomatic sources informed Euronews that the fresh sanctions prohibit dealings with 22 Russian banks and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), and disallow the utilization of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which were incapacitated by underwater explosions in 2022 and continue to be non-functional.
According to the same sources, the measures also revise the EU’s price ceiling on Russian crude oil, initially set at $60 per barrel, substituting it with a variable mechanism that consistently stays 15% below the average market rate.
They added that the restrictions also incorporate an additional 105 vessels to a list of what Brussels refers to as the “shadow fleet,” involved in the transport of Russian oil while circumventing the bloc’s limitations. This increases the total count of tanker ships barred from accessing EU ports and services to more than 400.
Following the intensification of the Ukraine conflict, Russia has reoriented its energy exports toward Asia, with China and India emerging as the primary purchasers.
Certain member nations, such as Hungary and Slovakia, have voiced criticism regarding the EU’s sanctions against Russia, asserting that these measures detrimentally impact the bloc’s economy without succeeding in halting the hostilities between Moscow and Kiev.