US, EU to Impose More Russia Sanctions This Week
New allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine are expected to trigger another set of U.S. and EU sanctions, with some top European officials calling for energy embargoes and harsher financial restrictions. Although the European Commission was already expected to consider expanding some of its existing sanctions this week, the bloc may take more significant steps after images surfaced over the weekend of potential war crimes committed by Russia's military, including in Bucha, Ukraine.
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Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said he was “shocked” by the “haunting images” from Ukraine. “Further EU sanctions & support are on their way,” he tweeted April 3. French President Emmanuel Macron said April 4 the EU needs to impose a “new round of sanctions and very clear measures,” Reuters reported, which should target Russian coal and oil. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the EU will "tighten sanctions" against "those responsible for these war crimes," according to an unofficial translation of an April 3 tweet.
The U.S. also will "continue to add" sanctions, President Joe Biden said April 4. He called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "war criminal" and said the country's military actions in Ukraine constitute a war crime. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the additional sanctions will be imposed alongside EU partners this week but said they haven't yet been finalized.
"We are having conversations, as I stand here at this podium, with senior officials in the main European capitals as well as in Brussels on the full range of sanctions options," including sanctions that "relate to energy," Sullivan told reporters April 4. "We want to make sure we're able to pull together a consensus along with the rest of the Eruopean Union."
Some European countries have been reluctant to sanction Russian oil, with German Finance Minister Christian Lindner saying April 4 that an oil embargo can’t be part of any sanctions package. “We must plan tough sanctions, but gas cannot be substituted in the short term,” Lindner said, according to a Reuters report. “We would inflict more damage on ourselves than on them.”
Other European countries have been more willing to impose energy restrictions. Lithuania announced April 2 it’s no longer importing Russian gas, making it the first European country to secure “full energy independence” from Russia, the country’s energy ministry said. Lithuania said its “gas transmission system” has been operating without Russian gas since the beginning of April, and it expects to import enough liquefied natural gas from other sources “to be enough for all customers.”
The move came several days after Poland adopted a law to ban Russian coal imports (see 2203300010). The U.S. and the EU launched an initiative last month to gradually reduce European dependency on Russian energy, a move that will be implemented over time (see 2203250035).
The EU is also facing outside pressure to increase its Russia sanctions. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the U.S. and others should “turn up sanctions” to further pressure Russia. “There are many more that could be imposed,” Dimon wrote in his annual letter to shareholders April 4. He also said a “Marshall Plan” is needed to “ensure energy security for us and our European allies.”
Dimon described a bleak global economic outlook due to Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying “sanctions on Russia are driving gasoline prices up and threatening Europe’s access to natural gas.” The war “and the sanctions on Russia, at a minimum, will slow the global economy -- and it could easily get worse,” he said.
He said more sanctions, which may be necessary, “could dramatically, and unpredictably, increase their effect. Along with the unpredictability of war itself and the uncertainty surrounding global commodity supply chains, this makes for a potentially explosive situation.”