EU leaders discuss new sanctions against Russia

BRUSSELS • The European Union is being assaulted on multiple fronts by Russia and must unite behind new economic sanctions, Baltic and central European leaders said yesterday, with Lithuania citing possible Russian military strikes from Belarus.

The warnings at an EU summit were some of the most direct in recent weeks as the United States and its Nato allies seek to deter any possible Russian attack on Ukraine and reduce Moscow's margin for surprise.

EU leaders will warn of "massive consequences" if Russia were to invade Ukraine, according to a draft final summit statement, the same stance taken by Washington.

"We really are facing a series of attacks. I see them all as associated," Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins told reporters, listing Middle Eastern migrants sent by Belarus to EU borders, artificially high natural gas prices orchestrated by Moscow, and Russian disinformation.

While Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said any dispute with Russia needed to be resolved by "peaceful means", Russia's Baltic neighbours tried to press home what they see as Moscow's attempts to blur the line between peace and war.

"We are probably facing the most dangerous situation in the last 30 years. I am talking about not only Ukraine but the eastern flank of Nato," said Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda, a day after EU leaders held a summit with Ukraine and other former Soviet republics in Brussels.

Ukraine is currently the main flashpoint between Russia and the West. The United States says Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders, possibly in preparation for an invasion. Moscow says its actions are purely defensive and accuses Kiev and the West of provocative behaviour.

"I'm worried because the military concentration, especially on the Ukrainian border with Russia, (is) very strong," said Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, as he arrived for the one-day summit.

"And so there is no doubt that Russia is using military power to make pressure... We are prepared to avoid such kind of surprises we met during the occupation of Crimea," he said, referring to Russia's seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

Nato says that since then, Russia has sought to destabilise the West with new nuclear weapons, cyber attacks and covert action, which Moscow denies.

Back then, the EU, along with the US, imposed economic sanctions on Russia, targeting its energy, banking and defence sectors in response.

"Our very first call is on Russia to de-escalate but we are also prepared for any increasing aggression from the Russian side," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said after the talks. "Sanctions are in place; those sanctions could be tightened but, of course, there are also sanctions prepared that are additional and coming on top in all the different fields you might think of."

Slovenian PM Jansa said hitting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany to prevent it from becoming operational was an option.

Latvian PM Karins accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to use the Nord Stream 2 pipeline "as a sort of blackmail against the EU, stating falsely that if we want to have more gas we have to open up to Nord Stream 2".

Russia is ready for constructive work with the West on European security proposals despite differences between the two sides, the RIA news agency quoted the Russian Foreign Ministry as saying yesterday.

But the Kremlin had on Wednesday made clear that it prefers to speak directly to Washington, even as European leaders have been pushing to salvage their role as mediators in the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov presented US Assistant Secretary of State Karen Donfried with a list of security conditions for standing down the troops.

The move implicitly sidelines France and Germany, the guardians of the so-called "Normandy process", a four-way peace dialogue between Paris, Berlin, Kiev and Moscow.

Privately, a minister at the meeting told Agence France-Presse that Mr Putin would seek to deal only with the US on European security matters. The European minister, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US President Joe Biden has stepped up to open a dialogue with Mr Putin and "we have to see what that leads to".

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE