President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday April 7 warned EU nations considering more sanctions against Moscow that failure to block all Russian energy imports will be interpreted by the Kremlin as a clear green light for more aggression and military attacks against Ukraine, including systematic bombardments of Ukrainian civilian homes and businesses.
The Ukrainian leader made the warning during a nationally-televised public address. He also called for immediate and substantial heavy weapons deliveries to Ukraine from NATO states, saying only viable military force in the hands Ukraine’s Armed Forces (UAF) can halt Russian Federation (RF) army assaults.
“If there will not be a really effective set of sanctions against Russia, and if Ukraine is not supplied with the weapons it really needs, which we have asked for many times before, then Russia will see that as permission. As permission to go onwards. As permission to attack. As permission to unleash a new wave of blood in Donbas,” Zelensky said.
European Union representatives were scheduled to meet later in the day to discuss more sanctions against the Kremlin. According to early news reports from Brussels, the sanction packet would not include a boycott of Russian oil and natural gas imports to Europe.
Zelensky and other senior government officials have complained that the total value of EU support thus far in Ukraine’s more than month-long battle to defend itself from RF invasion, around one billion Euros, is equivalent to the money the Kremlin earns from selling natural gas and oil to EU states, every 24 hours. Along with a total energy import boycott, the Ukrainian leader said, EU states must impose substantial, rather than symbolic, financial sanctions on RF government agencies and businesses, including particularly the ejection of all RF banks and financial institutions from the international SWIFT bank transfer system.
“New investments in Russia are blocked, restrictions are applied against several systemic banks in Russia, personal sanctions are added, as well as other restrictions. This package looks spectacular, but that’s not enough…,” Zelenskyy said. “We will continue to insist on a complete blockade of the Russian banking system from international finance. We will also continue to insist on… the democratic world’s rejection of Russian oil.”
Zelensky said the Kremlin’s forces are rearming, re-equipping, and preparing for a new major offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. He said Ukraine will defend itself and ready for a long-term war: “We will fight and not retreat. We will employ all means to defend ourselves until Russia begins to seriously seek peace.”
