The European Union approves the tenth package of Russian sanctions on the anniversary of the invasion

The Swedish EU Presidency announced on Friday that the European Union had agreed to a “tenth package of sanctions” against Russia on the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine after frantic last-minute negotiations.

The EU’s member states “have applied the strongest and broadest sanctions ever to support Ukraine in winning the war,” the Presidency declared on Twitter.

The package contains sanctions against organisations that promote the conflict, disseminate propaganda, or ship Russian drones, as well as stiffer export limits on dual-use commodities.

As Poland previously threw a wrench in the works and delayed things until two hours before midnight, EU member states barely made it across the finish line.

“Warsaw is a leading Russia hawk in the bloc.” Other EU nations were puzzled by Warsaw’s decision to risk not announcing new sanctions on the anniversary of Russia’s attack against Ukraine over just one component of a larger package.”

Sanctions cannot be implemented unless all EU member states agree to them, which makes negotiations among the 27 countries frequently tiresome and drawn out.

According to the EU, the 10th tranche of sanctions imposed on Russia since the war began was put in place to make it more difficult for Moscow to finance the fight and to deprive it of technology and spare parts for its military hardware.

Also, steps were taken to add more people to the “blacklist,” including those who the West claims are propagandists for Russia, those who Kyiv accuses of sending minors from Ukraine to Russia, and those responsible for the manufacture of Iranian drones used in front-line combat.

EU is also planning to reduce trade between the EU and Russia. So for that, the package was intended to cut off other banks from the worldwide system SWIFT, including the private Alfa-Bank and the online bank Tinkoff, and by this, the trade was reduced by more than 10 billion euros.