EU to hit Russian energy, financial sector, transport with tough sanctions

The European Union is to slap punishing sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, hitting its financial sector, energy, and transport and banning the sale of key goods to the country.

The sanctions are expected to be formally put in place on Friday after EU leaders gathered in Brussels to hash out how to punish the regime of Russian president Vladimir Putin and deter further prosecution of the war.

"This is not only against Ukraine, this is a war against Europe, against democracy," Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda told reporters as he entered the summit. "They need our support today, tomorrow might be too late."

The sanctions are expected have an impact on some financial services firms in Ireland’s IFSC and also companies that lease aircraft.

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The list of products banned for export to Russia is expected to be coordinated with the United States, cutting off the country's supply of key goods.

The aim is to economically undermine Moscow’s ability to finance its war, foster division within the country’s elites, business community and citizens, and deter Mr Putin from advancing further towards western Europe.

Swift

Ahead of the summit, Ukraine had appealed for the EU to impose its strongest possible sanctions, including cutting Russia off from the international payments system, Swift.

"I will not be diplomatic on this. Everyone who now doubts whether Russia should be banned from Swift has to understand that the blood of innocent Ukrainian men, women and children will be on their hands too," Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba appealed ahead of the summit. "BAN RUSSIA FROM SWIFT"

But German chancellor Olaf Scholz made it clear that his country would not support the move as he entered the summit, making the required consensus impossible to reach.

Such a steps should be reserved “for a situation where it is necessary to do other things as well”, he told journalists.

Ireland was among the countries to support banning Russia from Swift, with Taoiseach Micheál Martin saying that Ireland called for "the strongest possible and the most comprehensive sanctions that can be deployed".

The sanctions would fall “in a range of sectors that would weaken the industrial base of Russia, and also its capacity to wage war” the Taoiseach added.

“Ireland stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people in their darkest hour.”

There were signs of frustration among the leaders of countries that border Russia, like Poland and the Baltic states, which have warned that the invasion threatens their security and have called for Nato to take joint action at an emergency summit of leaders of the military alliance on Friday.

"Talking is cheap. Enough of this cheap talking. There's enough naivety around us to reality. I believe we have to act," Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki told journalists.

“Civilians are being killed every minute, every hour,” he added. “We are buying as Europe, as the European Union, lots of Russian gas, lots of Russian oil. And President Putin is taking the money from us, from the Europeans, and he is turning this into aggression, invasion, he is destabilising the whole of Europe.”