BRUSSELS — European Union ambassadors meeting in Brussels on Thursday afternoon for the second day took part in what officials say would be their final round of negotiations to approve a fifth package of sanctions against Russia. the new measures.
The lengthy deliberations and the weakening of some measures showed that the bloc’s hunger for new sanctions, which increasingly harm European economies, waned, even in the wake of the shocking images of massacres in Ukraine as Russian troops withdrew from the areas around Kiev to turn their attention to their offensive in the east of the country.
Ukraine’s demands to extend sanctions against Russian oil and gas, which the United States supports, are meeting deep resistance from EU countries that rely heavily on Russian energy.
A ban on Russian coal imports, a major $4.4 billion measure that would mainly harm Germany, would be phased in over four months, instead of the three originally proposed by the European Commission, the executive branch of the bloc, according to EU diplomats familiar with the evolution of the talks. Germany and Bulgaria had called for a longer transition period to the coal ban to phase out existing contracts.
And a proposed measure to ban Russian and Russian-operated ships from EU ports would likely only include ships that carry the Russian flag, at the urging of Greece, Cyprus and Malta, officials said. While that measure would affect ships that opportunistically left the Russian flag in recent weeks following the February 24 invasion to evade sanctions, it would not affect a significant number of ships operating for or owned by Russian companies. , but carry flags like those of St. Kitts or Belize, which are popular in worldwide shipping due to tax breaks.
The European Union has made great strides in the weeks since the invasion began to sever its close financial ties to Russia, in big strides with the United States, Britain and other allies, but mounting fatigue is slowing efforts to extend those measures.
The ambassadors’ meeting is expected to agree on the new sanctions later Thursday evening; individual governments will then stamp the measures in writing, a formality, before they come into effect.