Ukraine has prepared proposals to strengthen the European Union's sanction policy against the Russian Federation and plans to present them to EU partners next week. This was reported by Reuters on May 21 with reference to the text of the still unpublished document.
The Ukrainian plan provides radical steps for further economic and political isolation of Moscow. One of the key proposals is permission to confiscate frozen assets of persons and companies under sanctions, with the subsequent transfer of these funds for the needs of Ukraine. Previously, such an initiative was already discussed in some EU Member States and G7, but the final decisions were not made.
Ukraine also calls for new sanctions against importers of Russian oil. It is about imposing so -called secondary sanctions on companies from third countries, including India and China, which buy Russian oil, thereby indirectly financed by the Russian war. This means that not only states but also private companies that cooperate with Moscow bypassing existing restrictions can be involved in sanction pressure.
Kyiv pays special attention to internal procedures for adopting sanctions within the European Union. In the current system, each member country has a veto that allows individual countries to block new restrictions. Ukraine proposes to change this mechanism by introducing a voting by a qualified majority. This will make sanction decisions faster and more efficiently, without the risk of paralysis through the position of individual countries.
