European countries threaten to ramp up Russia sanctions
AFP | London
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European foreign ministers threatened to step up sanctions on Russia at a crunch meeting in London yesterday, as the continent’s top diplomat accused the Kremlin of “playing games” over peace negotiations with Ukraine.
Moscow has brushed aside pressure from European leaders to agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire yesterday, saying Russia would not accept ultimatums.
It has instead proposed direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, but European countries had warned a ceasefire needed to be in place for this to go ahead.
In a joint statement after their meeting in the British capital, the foreign ministers said they were concerned that Russia “had not shown any serious intent to make progress.”
Delay
“It must do so without delay,” the ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the EU said.
They said they had agreed “to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia’s ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy.”
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