Sweden, Finland pushes for tougher EU sanctions on Russia

Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said that Sweden and Finland have proposed stricter measures for the EU’s upcoming 20th sanctions package targeting Russia. 

She made the remarks on January 29 ahead of the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting, stressing the need to increase pressure on Russia, Caliber.Az reports.

The FM noted that it was the only way to stop the killings, adding that they were seeing news of hundreds of thousands of people forced to leave their homes due to a lack of heating and electricity.

“I just met recently medics coming straight from the border, from the front, and they told me these horrible stories about their friends and colleagues dying in their arms,” she stressed.

For this reason, she explained that Sweden and Finland had proposed three measures for the new sanctions package.

“First of all, we need to impose a full services maritime ban on all Russian vessels that transport energy. Secondly, we need to ban the imports of fertilisers, and that is the third biggest import group coming from Russia. And thirdly, for moral reasons, we need to stop the export of European luxury products to Russia,” the Swedish minister emphasised.

By Jeyhun Aghazada