Ukraine-Russia war, EU and US: “Proceed with sanctions”

Ukraine-Russia war, EU and US intend to go ahead with sanctions. “Together we must aim to make those responsible for the aggression answer for what they have done and we must commit ourselves to imposing further costs on Russia until Vladimir Putin ceases the aggression” said US President Joe Biden and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in a joint statement. The EU and the US, they add, will put in place an “initiative” to “monitor the full implementation of the measures” and to ensure that Russia can find “shortcuts” that undermine the effect of the measures. Read also The common goal is, on the one hand, “to strengthen transatlantic security and defense, also through robust EU-NATO cooperation” and, on the other, to reduce energy dependence on Russian fossil fuels. For this reason, the EU heads of state and government discussed with US President Joe Biden the “cooperation between the EU and the US to reduce Russia’s energy dependence on fossil fuels, to accelerate the transition to clean energy and the need to respond to the needs of food security in the world “. In a joint statement released by the European Commission, Biden and Ursula von der Leyen announce that the US and the EU will set up a “joint task force” to address “the immediate needs of EU energy security and to accelerate the” ecological transition. For Biden and von der Leyen, a “rapid transition” to clean energy is “essential to advance the EU’s independence from Russian fossil fuels”. At the same time the United States of America and the European Union “will support the work. of war crimes documentation experts who are gathering evidence on the ground in Ukraine. ” In the readout, released by the White House at the end of Biden’s participation in the European Council, the leaders “welcome the opening of international investigations, including by the International Criminal Court and the ongoing efforts to gather evidence of the atrocities” committed in Ukraine. .