New military aid to Ukraine, strengthening of sanctions against Russia: Westerners should harden their positions on Wednesday after the discovery on Sunday of more than 300 corpses in Boutcha, near the capital of Ukraine. The images of the bodies, dead on their bikes or with their hands tied, shocked public opinion and governments.
The first nation to respond tangibly, the United States announced $100 million in additional aid so that Ukraine could supply itself with anti-tank missiles and repel the Russian invader who is currently concentrating on the East and the Donbass. And should, in consultation with the European Union and the G7, adopt new sanctions today, aimed at prohibiting “any new investment” in Russia, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The US Treasury has already announced on Tuesday that it no longer allows Moscow, the Russian capital, to repay its debt with dollars held in US banks. These decisions, which add to a whole series of measures taken since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, will “damage key instruments of the Russian state apparatus” and “cause economic damage immediate and acute”, according to the same source.
The energy sector?
Are the sanctions going to hit the heart of the machine even if Europe has to tighten its belt? Yesterday the European Commission proposed that the 27 member states stop buying Russian coal, which accounts for 45% of EU imports, and close their ports to Russian-operated vessels. They still have to accept, while touching the energy sector could put some European economies in difficulty.
VIDEO. War in Ukraine: after Boutcha, Macron calls for new sanctions against Russia
Ursula von der Leyen is due to travel to kyiv this week, accompanied by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. They will have to meet Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president, horrified by the Boutcha massacre, calls for Russia to be ostracized from the international community. He urged the UN on Tuesday to exclude Russia from the Security Council, of which it is one of the five permanent members with the right of veto, in view of its “war crimes” committed according to him in Ukraine.
The United Kingdom has announced that it has frozen $350 billion in foreign currency from the Russian regime, President Vladimir Putin’s “war chest”, British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said on Tuesday in Warsaw. And the mass expulsions of Russian diplomats have been going on since Monday. From France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Slovenia, in all nearly 200 Russian diplomats have been expelled from Europe in the past 48 hours.
The situation in Ukraine will also be on the program of the meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels of the foreign ministers of the NATO countries, indicated Tuesday the secretary general of the Alliance Jens Stoltenberg, specifying that they would also discuss with their Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kouleba of the needs of the Ukrainian forces. “I don’t want to give details, but the supply of anti-tank weapons and air defense systems is being considered,” he said.
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