Vadym Khlyudzinsky14:38, 18.12.24

According to von der Leyen, the economic aspect of the war is just as important as the military one.

The European Union is preparing another, already 16th, package of sanctions against the Russian Federation . This was announced by the Head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, during a plenary session of the European Parliament .

According to her, the new restrictions will be aimed at economically weakening the aggressor country.

“The economic dimension of this war is as important as the military dimension. More than a third of the Russian budget today goes to military spending. This is a war economy. Therefore, it is important to undermine Putin’s potential revenues,” the politician said.

Von der Leyen emphasized that EU sanctions are harming the Russian economy: for example, the ruble is at its lowest level since the beginning of the war, and despite large-scale countermeasures by the Russian Central Bank, inflation in some sectors of the Russian economy has reached 70%:

“We are sending a very clear message to the Kremlin: the longer the war goes on, the higher the price for the Russian economy.”

The Head of the European Commission also emphasized the need to continue political support for Ukraine.

“They have made tremendous progress on their path to membership in our Union. And if they continue these efforts, we will be ready to start negotiations on the Core Cluster in early 2025 and other clusters throughout this year. Ukrainians are fighting for their future in our Union. And they should know that their efforts are paying off. The flag of Ukraine will fly at the heart of our Union,” von der Leyen concluded.

(C)UNIAN 2024