EU preps sanctions to deter Russia from new Ukraine incursion

BRUSSELS — The European Union is preparing coordinated economic sanctions with Britain and the United States to prevent a crisis at the Russian-ukraine border, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said on Monday.

“We are now in deterrence mode, in dissuasion mode, to try to avoid a crisis, to try to avoid any kind of military action from happening because once it starts it’s going to be difficult to stop,” he said.

EU foreign affairs ministers met in Brussels in the wake of skyrocketing tensions after weeks of Russia’s growing military presence on Ukraine’s border.

According to NATO, Russia has gathered between 75,000 and 100,000 soldiers, leading to fears of a repeat of 2014, when Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and pro-russian separatists in eastern Ukraine started a secession bid.

As a result, the EU and the U.S. subjected Moscow to economic sanctions. Russia was also suspended from the G-8 group of leading industrialized economies.

Now Western governments are considering a fresh round of sanctions as fears mount in Ukraine of another Russian attack.

At the weekend, foreign ministers from the nowG-7 group agreed that, if Russia crossed the border into Ukraine, this “would have enormous political and economic consequences.” EU members Germany, France and Italy are also in the G-7.

The U.S. has repeatedly warned Russia of the economic consequences of any new aggression towards Ukraine.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Monday any aggressive action from Russia towards Ukraine would need an unprecedented response from the EU and US.

“I think that we are convinced that Russia is actually preparing for the all out war against Ukraine, and it’s an unprecedented event, probably since the Second World War,” he said.

It is unclear at present whether Putin intends to launch a fresh incursion into Ukraine — Moscow has repeatedly denied this. A number of EU member states appealed for calm on their way into the talks in Brussels.

Talk of sanctions has brought Nord Stream 2, a controversial gas pipeline that bypasses Ukraine to transit gas directly from Russia to Germany, increasingly into focus.

The construction of the pipeline is the subject of a long-running debate in Germany and abroad amid concerns for the EU’S geopolitical vulnerability to pressure from Russia over energy supply. The project has also been criticized by environmentalists.

German Foreign Affairs Minister Baerbock said on Monday that the pipeline cannot be approved at present because it does not meet the requirements of European energy law.

The Green Party politician also told the German broadcaster ZDF on Sunday that the U.S. and the previous German government had discussed “that, in the event of further escalations, this pipeline could no longer be connected to the grid.”

Germany’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has yet to make his position clear on the pipeline. On Sunday, during Scholz’s inaugural visit to Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieck warned the project would only increase Moscow’s power over the EU and Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers signed off sanctions on eight individuals and three entities connected to the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary firm for activities in Ukraine, Syria, Libya and the Central African Republic, an EU press statement said.

The restrictions target the eight individuals for “serious human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings,” according to the statement.

Included in the sanctions are the Wagner group itself and three energy companies active in the oil and gas sector in Syria.

There was recent concern in the EU due to a possibility the Wagner Group was to be deployed to Mali.

The EU member states threatened to end their support for the crisis-hit state if the Russian mercenary group was awarded a contract.

Separately, EU foreign ministers on Monday adopted a new sanctions framework for use in Mali against individuals and entities destabilizing the West African country.

The EU is a mediator in Mali’s peace process and has active military training missions in the region to help armed forces combat terrorist groups.