The tenth package of European Union sanctions against Russia will ban the export of critical industrial goods worth 11 billion euros, blacklist propagandists and, for the first time, target entities linked to the Revolutionary Guard Corps Iran for helping the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine.
“Putin is not only carrying out a brutal war on the battlefield, but he is also aggressively attacking the civilian population,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, when announcing the proposal this Wednesday by the morning. “The aggressor has to pay,” said the German.
This new package comes as NATO warns that a new major Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine is already underway. In the center, the city of Bakhmut which is enduring incessant artillery fire.
The Commission’s proposed export ban will cover electronics, specialized vehicles, spare parts for trucks and jet engines, as well as construction tools such as antennas and cranes, which could be refocused on warfare, von der Leyen explained. . The bloc believes that Russia will not be able to obtain these essential Western-made products from other suppliers such as China and the military will end up suffering from shortages that could reduce its power.
New restrictions will be placed on a total of 47 new electronic components, as well as rare earth materials and thermal cameras, which can be used to build Russian weapons.
For the first time, the EU will add seven entities linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to the existing sanctions on dual-use items, that is, those that can be used for both civilian and military purposes. various reports They have found Western components in the Iranian-made “kamikaze drones” that Russia has used to destroy essential infrastructure in Ukraine and plunge the country into darkness. The findings raised alarm and called into question the effectiveness of the United Nations’ long-imposed sanctions regime against Iran.
“This should act as a strong deterrent to other companies and international sellers,” von der Leyen said.
The package must be debated and approved unanimously by the Member States, with the aim that it be in force when the war is one year old, on February 24. Once approved, the EU will have banned “all technological products found on the battlefield,” von der Leyen has defended.
The new battery of sanctions will also focus particularly on closing loopholes used by oligarchs to evade the impact of sanctions and on identifying the exact location and value of assets owned by the Russian Central Bank.
The EU intends to invest the bank’s frozen assets, protected from confiscation by international law, and channel the proceeds towards the reconstruction of Ukraine. But it is an unprecedented plan that would face multitude of legal obstacles.
Efforts to curb circumvention will be done in coordination with the G7 and other international partners, von der Leyen explained. “Together we are tightening the screws on Russia more and more,” von der Leyen said.
Source: Euronews Español
