Leading nations of the European Union are resisting a push to quickly draw up specific sanctions and other punishments to impose on Russia if it invades Ukraine, even as the Kremlin shows no sign of backing off a massive troop buildup near its neighbor, Bloomberg reports.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain want to focus now on talking to Moscow before laying out details of painful economic measures they’d trigger. But other member states argue that backing up the public threats of sanctions would better deter Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to senior diplomats and officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The divisions underline the challenges the U.S. and its allies face in mounting a coordinated response to prevent Russia from mounting an attack. They also reflect skepticism in some European capitals about Washington’s warnings over the last few weeks that Russia is actually preparing for a major assault on Ukraine and not simply using the troop buildup as a bargaining chip to win concessions.
“We want to be on this prevention-mode, that is the work of diplomacy, to try to study the different scenarios to have an answer prepared for each one of them, and making clear there will be an answer for any one of them if they happen,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told lawmakers in Strasbourg on Tuesday. EU leaders will discuss the issue in Brussels during two days of summits and bilateral meetings, including with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Wednesday and Thursday.
A string of western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have spoken to Putin in recent days to deliver the message that the West would impose much harsher sanctions that it has in years in the event of a Russian invasion. Those could include moves to cut big Russian banks off from the western financial system, as well as potentially a commitment by Germany not to bring the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia into service, according to people familiar with the plans.
In a call Dec. 7, the U.S. president agreed to begin discussions on Putin’s demand for binding security guarantees that would prevent the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from adding new members in the East or deploying weapons there that Moscow deems threatening. A U.S. diplomat is in Moscow Wednesday discussing Russia’s concerns.
The White House has ruled out giving in to Moscow’s demands and Biden spoke to leaders in the region after his call with Putin. His comments helped assuage fears in the region that Washington might agree to terms that could compromise security there, according to a senior East European official.
The Kremlin denies it plans to invade but accuses Kyiv of sabotaging a 2015 peace agreement and planning military action against Russian-backed separatists in east Ukraine. Kyiv denies those allegations.