Ukraine’s allies hit Russia with new sanctions

Kyiv: Kyiv’s European allies slapped new sanctions on Tuesday on Moscow, a day after a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough on ending the 3-year-old war in Ukraine.

“We have made clear again and again that we simply expect one thing from Russia now: namely, a ceasefire, unconditional and immediate,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said in announcing the sanctions.

“We welcome the fact that Ukraine is still prepared to do this. We note with disappointment that Russia has not yet taken this decisive step, and we will have to react to this.”

Diplomatic efforts have seen little progress in halting the fighting, including Monday’s phone call between Trump and Putin, and Friday’s direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul.

In the phone call, Putin promised Trump that Russia is “ready to work with” Ukraine on a “memorandum” outlining the framework for “a possible future peace treaty”.

“It appears that Putin has devised a way to offer Trump an interim, tangible outcome from Washington’s peace efforts without making any real concessions,” said Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre, in a post on X.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on his Telegram channel that “it is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation. We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently”.

The new European Union sanctions targeted almost 200 ships from Russia’s “shadow fleet” illicitly transporting oil to skirt Western restrictions It also imposed asset freezes and travel bans on several officials as well as on a number of Russian companies.

Ukrainian officials have said about 500 aging ships of uncertain ownership and safety practices are dodging sanctions and keeping oil revenues flowing to Moscow.