The European Union must respond to Vladimir Putin's “barbaric war crime“ against civilians in the Ukrainian city of Sumy with a new, seventeenth package of sanctions. This was stated by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budris, quoted by the BBC, reports News.bg.
Budris calls for the next sanctions package to include measures against Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), the state nuclear energy corporation “Rosatom“, as well as the so-called “shadow fleet“ - a network of ships that, according to Western sources, help Moscow circumvent the imposed ceilings on Russian oil prices. He also urged sanctions against individuals involved in evading existing restrictions.
The attack on Sumy on April 13, which killed 34 people, including children, the minister described as “another insult to attempts to achieve a ceasefire“. “We must increase the pressure on Putin to stop the aggression“, he wrote on X (the former Twitter).
His statement comes on the eve of the meeting of the Council of EU Foreign Ministers, which will be held on Monday in Luxembourg.
Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski condemned the missile strike, saying that after such an attack, the White House should understand that Putin “is mocking their goodwill“.