Formal green light from the 27 EU members for the nineteenth package of sanctions against Russia. The written procedure, as far as we understand from the Danish presidency of the EU, was concluded without any objection. The new sanctions hit Russian LNG exports, the fulcrum of the new EU measures. The package also includes a mechanism that limits the freedom of movement of Russian diplomats stationed in EU countries. “Today is a great day for Europe and for Ukraine. The impact of the sanctions will be concrete”, underlined Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.
“I canceled the meeting with Putin, we wouldn’t have gotten where I wanted to get.” Donald Trump said this in a bilateral meeting with the Secretary General of NATO in the Oval Office. “I will meet him in the future,” he added.
The ax of American sanctions therefore falls on Russia: Donald Trump’s administration has announced measures against the Moscow energy giants Rosneft and Lukoil, pointing the finger at “Vladimir Putin’s refusal to put an end to a senseless war”. After months of hesitation, rumors and indiscretions, the tycoon said that “it was the right time” to respond to the requests of Kiev and its Western allies with a package of sanctions “among the largest we have ever imposed on Russia”, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified. Who, in announcing the decision, accused the czar of not having been “honest and frank” with Trump. And he invited the rich nations of the G7 and other allies to “join” the US, which responded today with the EU’s yes to the 19th package of sanctions against Moscow, after Slovakia decided to withdraw its veto, unblocking the approval process.
The announcement of the sanctions comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clearly expressed his alignment with the tycoon on the idea of freezing the war on the current front lines. A position that less than a year ago was absolutely “unacceptable” for the Ukrainian president. And which further distances us from an agreement with Vladimir Putin, who is determined not to give in on his war objectives. So much so that according to the Wall Street Journal, the tsar’s immovability pushed the United States to authorize Kiev to carry out raids with some long-range missiles to strike Russia in depth, including the British Storm Shadow. ‘Fake news’, however, the American president denied in the evening that Washington “has nothing to do with those missiles or with what Ukraine does with them”.
Meanwhile, the children bundled up in their small jackets, carried in the arms of firefighters outside a bombed kindergarten in Kharkiv, among the rubble, smoke and broken glass, are the clearest – and dramatic – image of the short circuit on the diplomatic path: with the Budapest summit “cancelled” – in Donald Trump’s words – it was in fact 405 drones and 28 missiles that spoke Russians fell in a single night on the Ukrainian regions, including the capital Kiev. Seven dead – including two children – and dozens injured, due to yet another rain of fire on the invaded country which also brought new damage to infrastructure and blackouts in various territories. According to the mayor of Kharkiv, 48 children were in the kindergarten at the time of the attack and were taken to shelters. In the evening, the mayor spoke of 10 injured people – including a 5-year-old girl – while a municipal employee who was outside the building died. «There is and cannot be any justification for a drone attack on a kindergarten. It is clear that Russia is becoming more and more brazen”, commented Zelensky, according to whom “these attacks are a slap in the face from Russia to anyone who insists on a peaceful solution”.
“Russia does not feel enough pressure and is prolonging the war”, complains the Ukrainian president, speaking of “bandits and terrorists who can only be put in their place by force”. With this thought in mind, the Kiev leader is on a European tour to push partners to put more pressure on Russia to compromise. In Oslo, the first stop on his trip, Zelensky first made it clear that Ukraine is ready to accept a freeze in the conflict. «Trump proposed: ‘Stay where you are and start negotiations. I think it is a good compromise”, said the leader of Kiev, receiving applause from allies including Giorgia Meloni. “But I’m not sure Putin will support him,” the president added. That the path of diplomacy has encountered yet another setback is evident from the words of Trump himself, who put a tombstone on the Budapest summit because “we wouldn’t have gotten where I wanted to get to.” But “I will meet him in the future”, added the tycoon, at the end of a day in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban had tried to appear positive by indicating that “preparations for the peace summit continue” although “the date is still uncertain”. The words of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov also go in the same direction: «I don’t see any significant obstacles. The question is how to implement the parameters outlined by the president in Anchorage. And it’s a difficult process.” On the one hand, the US and Ukraine want an immediate ceasefire on the current front line to start peace negotiations. On the other hand, Moscow judges the proposal to freeze the war as unacceptable, insisting on its demands to obtain Donbass. Hence the stalemate over the negotiation. With these premises, Zelensky returns to ask for greater support from partners. After Norway, the Kiev leader’s tour continues in Sweden – ready to sell 150 Gripen fighter-bombers to the Ukrainians – before arriving in Brussels, where he will participate in tomorrow’s European Council while work is being done on a 12-point Euro-Ukrainian plan for peace, and there is a clash between the Twenty-Seven on the issue of Russian assets. On Friday, Zelensky will instead land in London for a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing. Defense support remains key for Kiev which is under fire from the Russians on the ground: two villages have been claimed by Moscow’s forces in the last 24 hours. And in a further show of strength, Putin led “an exercise of strategic nuclear forces with the involvement of their land, naval and air components”. Maneuvers that have been “planned” for some time, the Tsar clarified. But they send a clear message about the extent of the Russian threat in the military field.