By Andrew Gray and Fatos Bytyci
TIRANA (Reuters) -The European Union is working on a new package of sanctions to increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday as leaders from across Europe met in Albania.
The European Political Community Summit, which includes non-EU countries, convened in the Albanian capital Tirana as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks in more than three years, under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The EU, sidelined amid U.S. efforts to end the war, has already adopted 17 sanctions packages against Russia – the latest one this week – and diplomats say it is increasingly difficult to get the necessary unanimity among the bloc’s 27 members to pass new measures.
“He does not want peace, so we have to increase the pressure, and this is why we are working on a new package of sanctions,” von der Leyen said before the summit, referring to Putin.
“Main elements of this package will be for example: a ban on Nord Stream; further listings of the shadow fleet; a lower price cap for crude oil; and more sanctions on the Russian financial sector.”
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom to pump natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. They were ruptured by a series of blasts in 2022.
Officials and diplomats have said that the major new sanctions European leaders have threatened over the past days would need U.S. support to succeed.
On Sunday, Putin proposed direct talks with Ukraine in Turkey, but he spurned a challenge from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to meet in person, instead sending a team of mid-ranking officials to the talks.
Speaking to other European leaders in Tirana, Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s first priority in the Istanbul talks was to secure an unconditional ceasefire to create a basis for future talks on a peace deal.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Putin “made a mistake by sending a low-level delegation”.
“What we saw yesterday and overnight is yet more evidence that Putin is not serious about peace,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said as he arrived at the Tirana summit.
Starmer said Ukraine’s allies must act in unity, a sentiment echoed by other leaders at the summit including von der Leyen.
“We’ll be working on that again today to be clear that there must be a ceasefire, but also to be clear that should there not be a ceasefire, then we will act together in relation to sanctions,” Starmer said.
Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said that Europe must increase its defence capacities, adding that the region needs to work with the United States to end war in Ukraine.
“We have to undertake all efforts to keep the Americans on our side,” Merz said. “We cannot substitute or replace what the Americans still do for us on our continent.”
(Reporting by Andrew Gray and Fatos Bytyci in TiranaAdditional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Ingrid Melander, Bart Meijer, William James and Julia PayneWriting by Ingrid Melander and Edward McAllisterEditing by Alex Richardson and Frances Kerry)
