War in Ukraine: new EU sanctions against Russia, coal embargo

Published on: 08/04/2022 – 15:01 The European Union officially adopted, on Friday, a fifth round of sanctions against Russia, providing in particular for an embargo on imports of coal, wood and chemical products. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, nearly 30 billion euros in Russian and Belarusian assets have been frozen. The European Union (EU) officially adopted, on Friday 8 April, its fifth set of sanctions against Russia, which notably provides for an embargo on imports of coal, wood, chemicals and other products. .These new sanctions will also prevent many Russian ships and trucks from entering the EU and will prohibit any transactions with four Russian banks, including VTB.The embargo on coal imports will be fully effective from the second week of August and no new contracts can be signed from Friday when the sanctions will be published in the Official Journal of the EU. Current contracts will have to be terminated before the second week of August, which means that Russia will be able to continue to receive payments from the EU for its coal exports until that date.The Russian coal ban, a loss of 8 billion euros per year”These latest sanctions were adopted following atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Boutcha and other places under Russian occupation,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in a statement. According to the Kremlin , Western accusations that Russian forces committed war crimes by executing civilians in Boutcha are a “monstrous falsification” aimed at denigrating the Russian military. The Commission believes that the Russian coal ban alone represents , a loss of revenue of 8 billion euros per year for Russia.In addition to coal, the new EU sanctions prohibit imports of many other goods and products from Russia, including wood, cement, fertilizers, seafood and alcohol, with a total value estimated at 5.5 billion euros per year. The EU has also restricted the export to Russia of a number of products, including kerosene, the quantum computers, advanced semiconductors, high-end electronics, software, sensitive machines and transport equipment, for a total value of 10 billion euros per year. In total, more than 29.5 billion euros in assets frozenAs part of the sanctions adopted against the war in Ukraine, EU countries have already frozen at least 29.5 billion euros in Russian and Belarusian assets, according to a still partial count announced by the European Commission. These assets include boats, helicopters, real estate, works of art for nearly 6.7 billion euros. This assessment “is still ongoing”, the Commission said in a statement. Brussels has asked member states to share their information and, so far, “more than half of them” have communicated the results of their measures. The European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, urged “all Member States to take all necessary measures to apply the sanctions and those which have not yet done so to report to the Commission without delay”. “Adopting sanctions is not enough. It is also important to put them into practice and monitor our progress,” he said, quoted in the statement. With AFP