Following the first day of formal discussions between the United States and Russia about the potential of ending the Russia/Ukraine conflict, the EU is reportedly moving forward with additional sanctions against Russia. The 16th EU sanctions package, which is expected to be formally adopted on Monday, February 24th, would reportedly include a gradual ban on aluminum imports, export bans on chemicals, chrome, and other products used in precision machine tools, a ban on servicing oil and gas refineries, and the listing of 73 vessels utilized by Russia as a part of its “shadow fleet” used to transport oil in circumvention of sanctions, among other measures. In addition, the EU will reportedly cause 13 additional Russian banks to be cut off from the SWIFT network, which banks utilize internationally to communicate amongst themselves and to instruct cross-border payments.
For its part, the United States has acknowledged that the EU will ultimately need to be part of any negotiated resolution of the conflict. As U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained, “[t]he European Union is going to have to be at the table at some point, because they have sanctions as well that have been imposed.” Secretary Rubio also reportedly reassured certain EU counterparts that the U.S. would continue to maintain sanctions against Russia unless and until there is a deal to end the conflict. So far, the Trump administration has not taken any actions to loosen the U.S. sanctions against Russia that were imposed by the Biden administration.