EXCEPTIONALLY EU approves another package of anti-Russian sanctions: These include a ban on coal imports – Topky.sk

The ambassadors of the member states to the European Union (COREPER) discussed the new package of sanctions, which the European Commission proposed on Tuesday in the form of six pillars, on two days. The commission has decided on another round of anti-Russian sanctions following testimonies of massacres and torture coming from war zones in the suburbs of Kiev. The ban on coal imports is to affect Russia’s lucrative energy industry, which suffers losses of four billion euros a year. At the same time, four key Russian banks will be cut off from the SWIFT system in line with new sanctions. The import of computer technology to Russia and the export of several Russian goods to the EU will also be limited. Russian ships will not be able to dock in EU ports and Russian and Belarusian transport trucks will not be able to enter the Union. “This package is very important and extends the existing sanctions against Russia to new sectors, to more oligarchs,” said the French presidency of the EU council, which led negotiations at ambassadorial level. EU leaders, meanwhile, have also indicated that further sanctions are under way for the import of Russian oil. The ban on imports of natural gas, on which several Euroblock countries depend, is still outside the sanctions, although MEPs called for a “immediate and total embargo” during this week’s plenary session in Strasbourg not only for oil, coal and nuclear fuel but also for Russia. gas.