EU to impose new round of sanctions on Russia

BRUSSELS, Feb 2 (KUNA) -- President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced that a 10th round of sanctions will be imposed on Russia by 24 February.
"-- exactly one year since the (Russian) invasion (of Ukraine) started, we aim to have the tenth package of sanctions in place," von der Leyen told a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday. "Russia will also have to pay for the destruction it caused and will have to contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine," she stressed, noting that the price cap on crude oil already costs Russia around 160 million euro a day.
"And we will keep on turning up the pressure further. We will introduce, with our G7 partners, an additional price cap on Russian petroleum products.
"Therefore, we are exploring with our partners how to use Russia's public assets to the benefit of Ukraine," said the head of the EU's executive body.
Von der Leyen accompanied by 15 EU Commissioners travelled to Kyiv earlier today and met President Zelenskyy.
On his part, Zelensky said, "This is the time when our joint agreements and decisions here in our capital, Kyiv, will mean the strengthening of the whole of Europe." "This visit marks the beginning of two important days of European integration in Ukraine, when negotiations with Ursula von der Leyen, joint work of the European Commission Board and the Ukrainian Government, as well as the Ukraine-EU Summit scheduled for Friday, February 3, will take place," he stated.
Our joint program with the European Commission to rationalize energy consumption in Ukraine, namely, to replace incandescent light bulbs with LED lamps free of charge for our people, is also being actively implemented, said the Ukrainian President.
Five million LED lamps financed by the EU have already been delivered to Ukraine, he noted.
Zelensky called on Europe to reduce Russia's ability to circumvent sanctions.
"Now we see that the pace of sanctions in Europe has slowed down a bitآ… It is worth catching up, and it is worth fixing it," he stated. (end) nk.gb