The European Union should ban companies from providing any support to Moscow’s oil and gas-shipping fleet, introduce sanctions against Russian fertilisers and stop luxury goods exports to Russia, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Monday.
The 27-nation bloc is currently preparing its 20th sanctions package aimed at punishing Russia for its war in Ukraine. Previous sanctions have focused heavily on hobbling its oil and gas sector, the Kremlin’s primary source of revenues.
“The pressure on Russia has to be increased,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said at an annual security conference in the town of Salen, in western Sweden.
Stenergard said the EU’s next sanctions package should include a total ban on European companies providing services to Russian ships carrying oil, gas and coal. “No transport, no reloading of goods between ships, no insurance and no port repairs,” she said.