Kuleba: We call on EU, G7 to promptly adopt 7th package of sanctions

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba signed a letter to the European Union member states outlining Ukraine's proposals on the 7th package of sanctions against Russia which should be adopted as soon as possible.

"Today I signed a letter to the European Union member states with proposals on Ukraine’s vision of next sanctions [against Russia] in the seventh package ... Given that Russia seems to aim to fight in Ukraine to the last Russian, sanctions pressure, of course, needs to be increased," Kuleba said at an online briefing on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

As noted, the letter is based on the elaborations of the Yermak-McFaul group in three areas: new sectoral sanctions in the fields of energy, finance and trade, a roadmap for new personal sanctions against Russian oligarchs, high-ranking government officials and heads of state enterprises, and elimination of loopholes and evasion of sanctions.

Kuleba noted that after the sixth package of sanctions had been imposed, some European politicians began to say that now we need to "wait, study how the already imposed sanctions work, catch a breath."

"But it is enough to look at the map of the fighting in Donbas, the destruction, the hatred towards Ukrainians radiated by Russian politicians, their attempts to take root in the occupied Kherson region and part of Zaporizhzhia region to understand that there is no time to catch a breath and procrastinate. That is why we insist that the seventh EU sanctions package be adopted as soon as possible. I emphasize that there is no rational reason for delaying the seventh package of sanctions – this is our signal to the EU, this is our signal to G7," the foreign minister stressed.

In late May, the European Union imposed the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, banning Russian oil imports by sea as the main element.

According to the EU governing bodies, this step will allow the European Union to block 90% of Russian oil by the end of 2022.

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