“My agenda is very simple,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said Thursday ahead of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. It has only three elements on it. “They are weapons, weapons and weapons.” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the new Western sanctions, especially from Europe, had not gone far enough and that Russia would see them as “permission to attack”. Some politicians were still “unable to decide how to limit the flow of ευρώ euro oil to Russia so as not to jeopardize their economies,” he said. The West must “bring Russia to justice,” Zelenski told the Greek parliament, and taught Moscow that “those who blackmail Europe with an economic and energy crisis always lose.” Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office, said the sanctions “must be catastrophic enough to end this terrible war”. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc should approve a fifth round of economic sanctions, including a ban on Russian coal imports worth about 4 billion euros (3, 3.3 billion), on Thursday. The measures against Russian oil will be discussed by foreign ministers on Monday. “Sooner or later, I hope sooner, it will happen,” Borrell said. Zelensky is scheduled to hold talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Kyiv on Friday, the Ukrainian government confirmed, adding that no details of the talks would be announced in advance for security reasons. However, while welcoming a new wave of sanctions announced by the EU, Britain and the US – targeting Vladimir Putin’s two daughters as well as Russia’s largest public and private banks – Ukraine has insisted that Europe must go further. “We will continue to insist on a full oil and gas embargo on Russia,” Kuleba said. “I hope we will never again face a situation where, in order to increase the pressure of sanctions, we need atrocities like Bouha to be exposed.” Images of dead civilians, some handcuffed, on the streets of Bucha, a city northeast of Kiev recaptured by Russian invaders, have sparked international outrage and renewed calls from Ukraine to the West to stop buying Russian energy. Kuleba stressed the vital importance of arms supplies as well as sanctions, calling on “all allies to put aside their reluctance, their reluctance, to provide Ukraine with what it needs.” He added: “The more weapons we get and the faster they reach Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved.” Kyiv has urged its allies to supply more heavy weapons, such as air defense systems, artillery, armored vehicles and jets, as Moscow prepares to resume its offensive in the east of the country six weeks after its brutal invasion. Kuleba said countries that were reluctant to procure offensive rather than defensive weapons were “hypocritical” because “there was no longer any real distinction between the two” in the conflict. “I think the agreement offered by Ukraine is fair,” he said. “You are giving us weapons, we are sacrificing our lives and the war is limited to Ukraine.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg agreed that the discrimination was irrelevant and said that members of the alliance would step up with “air defense systems, anti-tank weapons and heavier weapons”. Now, as Moscow redeploys and re-equips its forces, it was time to do so, he said. EU sources say Europe’s ban on Russian coal imports – the key measure in its latest sanctions – will be approved on Thursday, but will not take effect until August, a month after it was proposed under pressure from Germany, the bloc’s largest importer of Russian coal. The United Kingdom is set to ban Russian coal by the end of the year. Oil and gas sanctions, however, which are much more important imports, have divided the EU-27, with Member States relying more on imports from Russia for fear of economic repercussions. Russia accounts for about 40% of the EU’s gas consumption and one third of its oil imports. Ukraine on Thursday accused Hungary, which has said it was willing to pay in rubles for Russian gas, of taking an “unfriendly” stance. “If Hungary really wants to help end the war, here’s how to do it: stop destroying unity in the EU,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko. Budapest should “support the new anti-Russian sanctions, provide military assistance to Ukraine and not create additional sources of funding for Russia’s military machine,” he added. “It’s never too late to get on the right side of the story.” Putin telephoned Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has long sought a rapprochement with Moscow, to congratulate him after his party won a fourth consecutive term in last week’s general election. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said a subsequent proposal by Budapest to host peace talks “seems cynical”.
