Ukraine expects new EU sanctions against Russia
2023.01.09 08:25
Ukraine expects new EU sanctions against Russia
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated on Monday that Kyiv anticipates that the European Union will include Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom in its subsequent round of sanctions regarding the war in Ukraine.
After meeting with Frans Timmermans, vice president of the executive European Commission, in Kyiv, Shmyhal stated that Russia’s nuclear energy industry should be punished for its invasion of Ukraine more than ten months ago.
The Zaporizhzia nuclear power station in southeastern Ukraine has been under Russian control since March, and in October, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree handing over control of the plant to a Rosatom subsidiary from the Ukrainian nuclear energy company Energoatom. The move, Kyiv claims, amounts to theft.
“With our European partners, we are actively providing support in four areas: “Sanctions against Russia, demilitarization of the Zaporizhzhia NPP, supply of electrical equipment, opportunities to import electricity from the EU,” Shmyhal wrote on the messaging app Telegram.
“We anticipate restrictions on Russia’s nuclear industry, particularly Rosatom, in the tenth package of EU sanctions. For crimes against the environment and attacks on Ukraine’s energy industry, the aggressor must be punished.”
Despite the EU’s gradual increase in sanctions against Russia in response to the conflict in Ukraine, the EU has not directly sanctioned Rosatom.
The United Nations’ nuclear power watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has repeatedly expressed concern regarding the shelling of the Zaporizhzhia plant, which each side attributes to the other.
A nuclear safety and security protection zone around Europe’s largest nuclear power plant has also been proposed by the IAEA.
Shmyhal also stated that he and EU climate policy chief Timmermans had agreed that green principles should be used in Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction.
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He did not provide any specifics, but he thanked Timmermans for the initiative to establish a strategic partnership between Ukraine and the EU “in the field of renewable gases.”
