EU Joins US in New Sanctions on Russia 10/23 06:20

   The European Union has agreed on a new raft of sanctions against Russia 
targeting its shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning its imports of liquefied 
natural gas, the Danish EU presidency announced Thursday.

   BRUSSELS (AP) -- The European Union has agreed on a new raft of sanctions 
against Russia targeting its shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning its 
imports of liquefied natural gas, the Danish EU presidency announced Thursday.

   "Today is a good day for Europe and Ukraine," Danish Foreign Minister Lars 
Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement, as EU leaders were gathering for a summit 
in Brussels.

   He said that the new sanctions "will introduce new and comprehensive 
measures on oil and gas, the shadow fleet and Russia's financial sector." A new 
system for limiting the movement of Russian diplomats within the 27-nation EU 
will also be introduced.

   The move comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump's administration 
announced new sanctions against Russia's oil industry that are aimed at moving 
Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and ending Moscow's 
war on Ukraine.

   Energy revenue is the linchpin of Russia's economy, allowing Putin to pour 
money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and 
avoiding a currency collapse.

   The new EU measures took almost a month to decide. The 27-nation bloc has 
already slapped 18 packages of sanctions against Russia over the war, but 
getting final agreement on who and what to target can take weeks.

   The sanctions agreement was sealed at a Thursday morning meeting of EU 
ambassadors, just a few hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 
joins his European counterparts for the one-day summit, as they press for a 
ceasefire to halt almost four years of fighting.

   The summit comes after Trump said that his plan for a swift meeting with 
Putin was on hold because he didn't want it to be a "waste of time." It was yet 
another twist in Trump's stop-and-go effort to end the war.

   The leaders are also eager for any progress on Trump's Gaza peace plan, and 
will debate ways to keep the 27-nation bloc involved in proceedings.

   The EU is the world's biggest provider of aid to Palestinians but has little 
leverage over Israel -- in part because European nations are divided over how 
to handle the conflict -- and it has struggled to play a role of consequence.

   It's role in the war in Ukraine is clearer, and the summit takes place as 
Russian armed forces strike at the conflict-torn country's power grid just as 
the weather starts to turn colder.

   Earlier this week, Ukraine's strongest European backers who form part of the 
"coalition of the willing" said they opposed any push to make Ukraine surrender 
land captured by Russian forces in return for peace, as Trump most recently has 
suggested.

   The U.K. will host a meeting of the members of that coalition of more than 
30 countries on Friday.

   On the EU side, leaders intend to push forward with plans to use billions of 
dollars in frozen Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's war efforts, despite 
some misgivings about the consequences of such a step.

   The biggest tranche of frozen assets -- some $225 billion worth -- are held 
in Belgium, and the Belgian government has been reluctant to take any risks on 
using the money without firm guarantees from its European partners.

   Ukraine's budget and military needs for 2026 and 2027 are estimated to total 
around $153 billion.

   The EU leaders are also likely to sign off on a new "road map" to prepare 
Europe to defend itself against a Russian attack by the end of the decade. Top 
officials believe that Russian could be ready to take aim at another European 
country within 3-5 years.