EU Eyes New Russia Sanctions for Second Anniversary of War

Brussels aims to impose a new round of sanctions on Russia next month to mark the second anniversary of Moscow's all-out invasion of Ukraine, an EU official said Friday. 

The European Union has already hit Russia with 12 rounds of unprecedented sanctions since the Kremlin launched the war on its neighbour in February 2022. 

European diplomats admit it is becoming increasingly difficult to agree on further sectors of the Russian economy to target in a bid to drain Moscow's war chest.  

But Brussels wants to keep up the pressure to send a signal to both the Kremlin and Kyiv that it has not lost focus on the conflict. 

The official said that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell "is very keen that we will be marking the second anniversary of the aggression with a package of sanctions fundamentally on people and entities".

"We are working on that and we expect we will be able to deliver," the official said. 

The EU's Baltic members and Poland, among the most hawkish on Russia, are repeating calls for sanctions on Moscow's nuclear sector and exports of liquefied natural gas. 

But other EU states have so far rejected those demands. 

The discussion of new sanctions comes as the EU is scrambling to get Hungary, Russia's closest ally in the bloc, to drop its veto on 50 billion euros in financial aid for Ukraine at a summit on February 1. 

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The EU is also debating a potential new fund for weapon supplies to Kyiv.

But there is so far no consensus on how to replace an existing fund used to refund member states for the arms they have sent to Ukraine.