Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda pledges to keep pressing the EU to add Russia’s state nuclear giant Rosatom to its sanctions list.
On the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU agreed on the 10th sanctions package, which does not, however, include Rosatom.
“We will keep on pressing. There will be packages 11 and 12. We are not going to relax,” Nausėda told reporters in the resort town of Palanga on Tuesday.
So far, these efforts have failed “because of very specific interests of very specific countries”, according to the president.
He added that all EU sanctions packages were compromises agreed by the member states.
“I’m not very happy about the latest sanctions package. It is good that it was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the war, but we have always stressed that what Russia is doing in the nuclear field, destabilising and posing a very concrete threat to nuclear facilities in Ukraine, cannot go without consequences,” he said.
The new package of EU sanctions targets 121 individuals and companies, including another three Russian banks.
The package also includes seven Iranian organisations manufacturing self-exploding drones that Russia has been using to strike targets in Ukraine, including infrastructure and residential buildings.
Moreover, the EU ban on exporting industrial goods to Russia has been expanded to include dual-use items such as electronics, specialised vehicles, machine parts, spare parts for trucks and jet engines, antennae, cranes, drones, rare materials, electronic circuits, and thermal cameras.
EU officials estimate that trade in newly sanctioned goods amounts to more than 11 billion euros.
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