EU keeps up ‘pressure’ on Russia with new sanctions

EU countries on Wednesday agreed a new round of sanctions on Russia, diplomats said, as the bloc looks to keep up pressure in the face of US talks with Russia.

The wide-ranging package — which includes a ban on imports of Russian aluminium — will be formally adopted by EU foreign ministers on Monday, the third anniversary of Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The EU’s 16th round of sanctions on Russia comes as US President Donald Trump has undercut Kyiv and its European backers by launching efforts with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to end the war.

“The EU is clamping down even harder on circumvention by targeting more vessels in Putin’s shadow fleet and imposing new import and export bans,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.

“We are committed to keep up the pressure on the Kremlin.”

Beyond targeting Russia’s lucrative aluminium sector, the new measures target the so-called “shadow fleet” used to skirt restrictions on Russian oil exports by blacklisting 73 more ageing vessels.

The EU will also disconnect a further 13 Russian banks from the global SWIFT payment system and ban a further eight Russian media outlets from broadcasting in Europe.

Europe is scrambling to react after Trump upended three-years of staunch US support for Kyiv by starting talks with Moscow.

The US-Russia talks on ending the war in Ukraine have excluded both Ukraine and Europe, which Trump says must step up to guarantee any ceasefire. 

Top US officials and Russian negotiators held a first meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to pave the way towards reaching a deal on Ukraine.

European countries are urgently trying to make their voices heard as they fear a bad deal could leave an emboldened Moscow claiming victory.

The US has said that the EU will eventually have to play a role in the talks due to the sanctions it has imposed on Russia. 

Zelensky says Trump is in disinformation bubble on Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hit back on Wednesday at Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine was responsible for Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, saying the US president was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble.

Speaking ahead of talks with Trump’s Ukraine envoy a day after Trump said Ukraine “should never have started” the conflict, Zelensky said he would like Trump’s team to have “more truth” about Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s assertion that his approval rating was just 4% was Russian disinformation and that any attempt to replace him would fail.

“We have evidence that these figures are being discussed between America and Russia. That is, President Trump … unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelensky told Ukrainian TV.

Trump said he may meet Putin this month.

The Kremlin said such a meeting could take longer to prepare but Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said it expected a number of US companies to return to Russia as early as the second quarter.

 Zelensky has suggested giving US companies the right to extract valuable minerals in Ukraine in return for US security guarantees, but indicated that Trump was not offering that. 

Russia praises Trump for criticising Ukraine-NATO moves

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday praised US President Donald Trump for blaming the Ukraine conflict on moves to admit Kyiv into the NATO military alliance.

Trump has repeatedly blamed the conflict on his predecessor, Joe Biden, and has said the nearly three years of fighting would “never have started” had he been president in 2022.

“He is the first, and so far, in my opinion, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the previous administration’s pushy line of dragging Ukraine into NATO,” Lavrov said of Trump in a question-and-answer session with lawmakers in Russia’s State Duma.

In a press conference in January, before his inauguration, Trump directly blamed Biden’s move to admit Ukraine as a NATO member for spurring the conflict.

“A big part of the problem was Russia for many, many years — long before Putin — said: ‘You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine’,” Trump told reporters at a press conference on January 7.

“And somewhere along the line, Biden said: ‘No, they should be able to join NATO.’ Well, then, Russia has somebody right on their doorstep, and I could understand their feeling about that.”

Russia told the United States in talks on Tuesday that it opposed any NATO member sending troops to Ukraine as part of a ceasefire, Moscow’s foreign minister said.

“The appearance of troops of armed forces from the same NATO countries, whether under a foreign flag, under the flag of the European Union or under national flags, does not change anything in this respect. This is unacceptable to us, of course,” Sergei Lavrov told reporters following talks in Saudi Arabia.