The European Union is planning to propose a mandatory phaseout on coal imports from Russia in a direct response to reports that Russian forces committed apparent war crimes in Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter.
The action on coal would be added to a package of steps aimed at strengthening existing measures and correcting loopholes that was already set to be debated this week by EU ambassadors. The details of the ban and the timing of the coal phaseout are still under discussion, the people said. The European Commission is also expected to propose banning most Russian trucks and ships from entering the bloc, the people said.
The EU isn’t planning to sanction oil or gas for now, despite intense pressure to inflict more economic pain on Moscow, the people said. But EU nations are deeply split over the next steps and some governments are continuing to push for at least a signal this week that the bloc is looking to reduce Russian oil imports, one of the people said.
Several governments, including Germany and Hungary, have resisted expanding the scope of sanctions to Russia’s energy sector, but the allegations that retreating Russian troops had executed scores of unarmed civilians led to a renewed push by some of the bloc’s eastern members to strengthen those measures.
Approval of the package and the ban on coal requires the backing of all 27 member states.
As part of the same proposal, the EU aims to expand export controls on more technologies used in the defense sector and other key industries, as well as restrictions on sales of LNG equipment. The EU’s executive arm is also proposing to add dozens more people and entities to its list of sanctioned individuals and companies, including banks, such as VTB Bank, that been cut off from the SWIFT global payments messaging system but are not yet fully sanctioned.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Kyiv this week to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a show of support for the country. The EU also said it will help Ukraine gather evidence of potential war crimes.