Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine have already cost Russia an estimated 1.2 to 1.5 trillion dollars, according to the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas.
“The figures speak volumes,” Kallas said at a press conference following the EU defence ministers’ meeting in Nicosia on Monday.
Brick by brick, she said, the foundations of Russia’s war economy are being brought crashing down.
Kallas revealed that proposals for sanctions against more than 80 further individuals and entities are on the table for next Monday’s foreign ministers’ meeting.
She explained that these should target Russia’s military-industrial complex, as well as those responsible for human rights violations and propagandists.
Regarding the EU’s failure to receive an invitation to Sunday’s Ukraine summit in London with Germany, the UK and France, Kallas said that member states had made it clear that the countries that know Russia better than anyone else must be heard.
Fundamentally, strategic patience was needed to actually bring Russia to a point where it would negotiate in good faith.
“We have the impression that we are not there yet,” she said. That is another reason, she said, why additional pressure and further sanctions were needed.