KABUL: The European Union has proposed its 20th sanctions package (the most extensive yet) against Russia, Reuters reported on Friday evening.
The goal of the sanctions is to deal a severe blow to “Russia’s maritime crude oil exports,” which is considered a significant source of revenue for maintaining the Kremlin’s war machine against Ukraine.
In the sanctions package, the EU aims to prohibit all services, including “insurance, transportation, and port services,” for Russian crude oil and to list more than 43 additional vessels known as the “shadow fleet” to make it harder for Moscow to circumvent sanctions.
With this proposed sanctions package, the EU targets Russia’s maritime oil exports, most of which go to China and India, and it is said to potentially impose tangible restrictions on the prices of Russian oil.
Additionally, the new sanctions package will focus on other sectors of the Russian economy, including “the regional bank of Russia, companies associated with cryptocurrency, and financial and trade services.”
Furthermore, the new sanctions aim to target certain exports and imports by Russia, including the import of “metals, chemicals, and minerals.”
This comes at a time when Russia has managed to cope with various Western sanctions over nearly four years of the Ukraine war.