EU to freeze Putin’s assets as it announces second wave of sanctions

The European Union announced it would freeze the assets of Russian president Vladimir Putin as the bloc unleashed its second wave of sanctions in a bid to punish Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.

The fresh measures hit Russian elites with travel bans and asset seizures, and named foreign minister Sergei Lavrov as well as hitting the oil refining, airline and financial industries, while seeking to thwart the operations of 70 per cent of the Russian banking system.

The severity of the sanctions did not quite meet the appeals to European leaders by the Ukrainian government to do everything they could. "You still can stop this aggression. You have to act swiftly," said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

But Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said the strength of the EU's sanctions should not be underestimated, and that Ireland had pushed for still further action that he believed would come.

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“I have no doubt that war crimes are currently being committed in Ukraine as we speak,” Mr Coveney told journalists in emotionally-charged remarks as he arrived for a snap gathering of foreign ministers in Brussels

“I’ve been in politics for nearly 25 years. I’ve never seen anything that has galvanised the European Union in the way that this has, in terms of the sense of unity, the sense of urgency, the need to respond.”

Not all steps were taken that could have been. The bloc continues to buy gas and oil from Russia, and the reservations of countries including Germany and Italy prevented agreement for now to cut Russia out of the international payments system Swift.

But Berlin later signalled that its opposition to the move was softening, while Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said he had received assurances that Italy would now support the move.

Mr Coveney said he believed a third package of sanctions already under development included Swift and “may well be passed in the next few days”.

Russian imports

The move to sanction Mr Putin personally is politically symbolic, building on a decision earlier this week that hit Russian imports and listed over 300 members of the Russian Duma for approving initial moves into eastern Ukraine.

They add to sanctions by Britain excluding Russian banks from its financial system and targeting oligarchs close to the regime, while the United States hit the banking, military, and aerospace sectors while barring the country from being able to purchase key technological components.

Outside the building as the EU ministers met a Ukrainian resident of Brussels mounted a lone protest with a sign reading “World War III has already begun. Help Ukraine more otherwise tomorrow war will knock on your door!”

"Just a few days remain," the protester, who gave his name as Vasil, told The Irish Times. "He could still be stopped ... if not it's Lithuania, the Baltic states, Poland, Moldova, Georgia. "

Concerns of a wider impact were echoed by Nato's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, who told a news conference: "The Kremlin's objectives are not limited to Ukraine."