TIRANA: The European Union is working on a new package of sanctions to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday (May 16) as leaders from across Europe met in Albania.
The European Political Community Summit, which includes non-EU countries, convened in the Albanian capital Tirana as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks in more than three years, under pressure from US President Donald Trump.
The EU, sidelined amid US efforts to end the war, has already adopted 17 sanctions packages against Russia, the latest one this week and diplomats say it is increasingly difficult to get the necessary unanimity among the bloc’s 27 members to pass new measures.
“He does not want peace, so we have to increase the pressure, and this is why we are working on a new package of sanctions,” von der Leyen said, referring to Putin.
“This package will include for example sanctions on Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. It will include working on listing more vessels of the Russian shadow fleet and also lowering the oil price cap, and will include more sanctions on the financial sector in Russia.”
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom to pump natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. They were ruptured by a series of blasts in 2022.
Officials and diplomats have said that the major new sanctions European leaders have threatened over the past days would need US support to succeed.
Speaking to other European leaders in Tirana, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s first priority was to secure an unconditional ceasefire to create a basis for future talks on a peace deal.
