Adviser Zelensky says EU 14th sanctions package must target circumvention and energy exports | Wilnesh News

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, an adviser to the Ukrainian President’s Office, told CNBC that the EU’s upcoming 14th sanctions package against Russia must do more to block energy exports and combat third-party circumvention.

Vladislav Vlasiuk said it was also crucial to tighten export controls on key technologies used in Moscow’s military equipment. He pointed out that EU countries need to work more unitedly on sanctions to have a chance of crossing the sanctions line before the end of next month as planned.

“The most critical aspect of the 14th sanctions package is to pass it before the end of June, but some member states are currently challenging this,” Vlasiuk said via email on Thursday.

The EU’s special envoy for sanctions enforcement, David O’Sullivan, was in Kyiv on Thursday to discuss the latest sanctions package, which faced continued resistance from member states such as Hungary. Proposed measures include a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and a crackdown on sanctions evasion through countries such as Kremlin ally Belarus.

The new energy proposal would not ban Russia from importing LNG to the EU, but it would prevent the bloc from re-exporting it to other markets, cutting off Russia’s vital trade route.

Natalia Shapoval, a member of the Yermak-McFaul International Working Group on Russia Sanctions, a think tank that advises on EU sanctions, said the LNG proposal sought to limit Russia’s current and future energy revenues.

“Liquefied natural gas is the lever that Russia still maintains,” Shapoval, who is also the director of the KSE Institute, said by phone.

Russia said on Wednesday that such a ban would hurt the EU more than Russia and that some LNG supplies had already been diverted to China and India.

“Import and transit bans are currently being discussed within the EU structural framework, which will lead to a new round of rising raw material prices, including financial costs for European consumers and European companies, will pose new risks to international energy security, and will have an impact on transportation and logistics. have a negative impact on the functioning of the corridor,” said Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Economic Cooperation Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to a Google Translate report by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs RIA Novosti.

However, Shapoval pointed out that without European infrastructure, gas supply is much more difficult than, for example, oil. Ports in France, Belgium and Spain are crucial for gas transit to Asia.

She added that the EU was currently playing a “cat and mouse game” to determine which key components were underpinning Moscow’s military power and therefore should be banned.

“There is a process of searching all components used in military capabilities to find choke points,” Shapoval said.

Previous sanctions programs by the EU and its allies have sought to prevent the supply of critical technology and so-called dual-use goods (which have both civilian and military uses) to Russia through third parties, notably China. Still, Shapovar said more action was needed to target third countries found to be supporting Russia.

“There are multiple vulnerabilities. It’s a well-known challenge,” she said.