EU joins U.S. with more sanctions on Russia to push Putin into talks

The European Union on Thursday heaped more economic sanctions on Russia, adding to President Trump’s new punitive measures the previous day against the Russian oil industry. Russian officials and state media dismissed the Western measures, saying they are largely ineffective.

- LORNE COOK

UKRAINIAN President Volodymyr Zelensky has long asked the world community to punish Russia.

NICOLAS ECONOMOU NurPhoto

The sanctions are intended as part of a broadened effort to choke off the revenue and supplies that fuel Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the war.

The measures are a triumph for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has long campaigned for the international community to punish Russia more comprehensively for attacking his country.

“We waited for this. God bless, it will work. And this is very important,” Zelensky said in Brussels, where EU countries attending a summit announced the latest round of Russia sanctions.

Despite U.S.-led peace efforts in recent months, the war shows no sign of ending after nearly four years, and European leaders are increasingly concerned about the threat from Russia.

Ukrainian forces have largely held Russia's bigger army at bay in a slow and ruinous war of attrition along a roughly 600-mile front line that snakes along eastern and southern Ukraine. Almost daily Russian longrange strikes have taken aim at Ukraine's power grid before the bitter winter, and Ukrainian forces have targeted Russian oil refineries and manufacturing plants.

Targeted sanctions

Energy revenue is the linchpin of Russia’s economy, allowing Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation and avoiding a currency collapse.