The EU Compromises On Sanctions Against Russia

The EU do not support the Ukrainian bid for candidate status

The EU is being divided by Hungary, France, Germany, and Italy who all have their own agendas in the current EU discussions in Brussels. While they all claim to support Ukraine’s membership into the EU, that doesn’t mean that they will actively support it, as in push for the application to be fast tracked. The problem is that there may not be much of Ukraine left by then.

Ukraine is dependent on the support from the West, and we are at a point where the support is waning, in part because of personal interests as we can see from France, Germany, Italy, and Hungary. These countries know that they are being criticized and have been trying to save face. Germany has now announced that they will send tanks via Greece, and France is being vocal about the importance of democracy.

Ukraine’s application for fast tracked EU membership has been opposed by most states, in particular France and Germany. This can only hinder the West, and shows cracks as in that Europe is not really united and isn’t supporting Ukraine as it ought to. No briefs have been released on the French Foreign Minister’s visit to Ukraine. Both Germany and France are trying to save face, but the world has already labelled them as appeasement traitors. Is there a way to save themselves? First of all they need to stop calling Putin—he should only be talking to Zelenskyy, but doesn’t recgonise Ukraine as a sovereign state. Macron and Scholz should spend more energy on providing aid, rather than to tell Putin and Zelenskyy what they should do. No one, as expected as responded to, or accepted the Italian peace plan proposal!

Day 97 (31 May)

• Russia claims to be willing to export grain from Ukraine in coordination with pseudo-ally, Turkey. That means that Russia trusts Turkey and doesn’t see them as the West, mainly because they are supporting the non-expansion of NATO, and because Turkey is doing Putin’s bidding—that is, to block Finland and Sweden from joining the alliance. It seems that Turkey made the offer to secure a safe route, but then again, Turkey offered mediation talks and started telling the world that Ukraine was willing to cede land in a peace deal, which is something only Ukraine can comment on. Turkey also as per the Montreaux Convention has control over vessels in the Black Sea that are civilian or warships that are not Black Sea nations. Technically, they should have closed off the straits to the Russian warships entering the Black Sea, but allowed them through as long as they were returning to their home port. Turkey must choose a side, as they still appear to be sitting on the fence but in Russia’s favour, despite being in NATO.

  

  Talks begin next week when the Russian Foreign Minister arrives in Turkey—they don’t seem to see the urgency of people starving or dying…

  

• The EU has comprised on oil sanctions against Russia after Hungary objected and the Czech Republic and Slovakia needed alternatives. There will be a temporary exemption from supplies coming from pipelines that will be reviewed. The immediate sanctions will be from Russian oil that arrives by sea, which is currently two-thirds. As a result, oil prices around the world have risen today.

  

  Orban is more concerned about the electorate and has claimed he has secured stable energy costs with the Druzhba/ Friendship pipeline exemption. Ukraine believes that the sanctions are too slow, and other EU countries (mainly Baltic states) also state the sanctions should apply to gas supplies as well. At present, the EU pays €400bn ($430bn, £341bn) for oil and gas, as Russia supplies 27% of the EU's imported oil and 40% of its gas. Obviously, this funds the Russian government and enables the invasion to continue.

  

• Criticisms against Germany continue as Welt (television channel), reports that Germany has only delivered two shipments of weapons (not the amount that was pledged), and has refused to supply heavy weapons such as tanks.

• Mikhail Romanov, a Russian soldier is accused to the murder of a man, who then with a comrade gang raped his wife in Brovary, Kyiv Oblast in March. He will be tried for rape, details of the murder have yet to be released and could be a separate charge so as to keep him in custody.

  

• The Macron/Scholz/Draghi appeasement trio now (as Draghi has also been calling Putin) have been criticised by their counterparts in the EU. All seek a speedy resolution, and that means that either Ukraine must cede land to Russia, or that Russia leaves Ukraine and stop their mission to liberate Donbas and other regions that they believe need liberating.

  As other commentators have said, the only way Russia will ceasefire and leave Ukraine is if ; Putin is removed from office (however that may happen), they run out of weapons/funds to finance the invasion, or if Ukraine surrender and give up all the territories they seek (for now).

  The three do not realise they are effectively aiding Russian propaganda and are resisting the majority of the West who wish to aid Ukraine by helping them defend themselves. It is as if to say to Ukraine, ‘You had a good attempt to defend yourself, now give it up and don’t drag us down with you and we will help you rebuild what is left.” That is an unacceptable position to take, because I am sure if Russia was trying to annexe the South of France, Macron would get every country onboard to fight to save it. Anyone that suggested Macron ‘give it up’ for peace would get an earful from him. That is no different from the situation in Ukraine.

• A cargo ship has left Mariupol with 2.5 tonnes of metal, destined for Rostov in Russia. This is effectively stealing raw materials from Ukraine. Denis Pushilin, the pro-Russian separatist leader in Donetsk declared this on social media quite openly because he believes that Russia has the right to take what they want from occupied territory. This is effectively daylight robbery that the wold is watching, and no one is stopping the Russian criminals.

• Two further Russia solders have been imprisoned for war crimes of shelling civilian towns. Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov both received eleven and a half years for targeting civilian buildings and destroyed an educational establishment in the town of Derhachi. They were part of a unit that attacked the Kharkiv region, and who were identified and pleaded guilty to the crimes they were accused of.

• Putin has simplified the procedures so that orphaned Ukrainian children can be sent to Russian occupied territories and gain Russian citizenship. This seems to be an attempt to legitimise the transportation of Ukrainians to Russian occupied areas.

  

• Gazprom suspends gas supplies to the Netherlands because they will not pay in roubles. This action was anticipated, and so the supply has not been disrupted.

• Germany has hit back at its critics claiming that they have sent heavy weapons and are training Ukrainian soldiers how to use new heavy weapons that they will then deliver. They accept that delivery has been slow (no kidding), and there are calls for the deliveries to be more organised. The deal is that Germany will supply the equipment to Greece and they will deliver to Kyiv. Similar deals have been made with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.

• The ICC says that Ukraine is a crime scene and is the biggest case the court has had to investigate. There are over 600 suspects where 80 have been prosecuted so far. Some of these include politicians and and ‘propaganda agents’ as well as the top military. Neither Russia or Ukraine are party to the ICC, therefore they cannot prosecute but can investigate alongside Poland,Lithuania, Estonia, and Slovakia. The court considers Crimea in Ukraine as occupied territory and is not recognised as Russian.

• Lukashenko of Belarus has presented awards to Russian KGB officers for rescuing Belarusian drivers stranded in Ukraine. This further reinforces the Belarusian position in supporting Russia in the invasion of Ukraine.

• 152 bodies have been found in the Azovstal steelworks. The Russians will hand them over to the Ukrainians.

• A Ukrainian court has seized the assets of Tatneft, a Russian oil and gas company.

  

• The Ukrainian Parliament has voted to fire Lyudmila Denisova who was the Human Right Ombudsman for inaction. She failed to secure humanitarian corridors or prisoner exchanges, did not appear to put much effort into pursing crimes that had evidence, and had spent time in other parts of Europe during the invasion that were not connected to the work she was expected to carry out. The presidential office backed the vote of no confidence, where 283 MPs (out of 450) voted her out. Obviously, there seems to be more to this story as the world was asking why humanitarian corridors simply weren’t happening early on during the war, and the result is thousands of people have ended up suffering for weeks due to inaction.

  

• In Kyiv there are allegations of corruption where the Kyiv Railway Car Building Works is said to have purchased materials from Russia at inflated prices instead of purchasing them from Ukraine. The investigation will look at possible embezzlement to support a Russian company.

• The word genocide has cropped up but proving it is difficult. Given that Russia has been destroying cities and towns, plus all historical sites, then stealing artefacts—it is as of they are wiping out anything Ukrainian.

• Evacuations are still taking place under the supervision of the ICRC, especially from smaller towns and villages that have been under Russian occupation. Removing the invaders for good will take time. These people may not see their homes again, and some people have witnessed their homes being looted. One can’t help but feel violated, and that is why the international community must stand up to Russia and support Ukraine.

• International lawyers are planning a civil suit against Russian entities to claim compensation for Ukrainian victims. This will be a private case and the aim is to seize Russian assets, but by using evidence that Ukraine has and using the information available to track down those associated with supporting the invasion.

• The EU has discussed Ukraine’s candidate status in the recent meetings in Brussels, and only Italy has supported granting Ukraine candidate status. This of course will make Putin happy, as a fractured Europe that disagree with each other is what he wants.

  Almost all the major EU member countries are against giving Ukraine candidate status – except Italy,” Draghi.