EU to Approve Sanctions on Russia Monday: 150 Entities, 50 Banks
France's European affairs minister said the EU will approve new sanctions on Russia on Monday, covering 150 more entities and 50 banks. The announcement came as US envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff reached Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin on a Ukraine peace plan.
French Minister Delegate for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad said on Thursday that the European Union will approve new sanctions against Russia on Monday, covering 150 additional entities and 50 banks.
The announcement came as US envoys reached Moscow for talks with President Vladimir Putin on ending the war in Ukraine.
"On Monday, we will take new sanctions against Russia on 150 additional entities, 50 banks, and it's France which proposed the bulk of the entities to add," Haddad told LCI television.
US envoys in Moscow
Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff arrived in the Russian capital on Thursday for what is their latest push for a peace deal. Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's special envoy, met them at their plane and accompanied them to central Moscow.
Kushner is US President Donald Trump's son-in-law. He and Witkoff are due to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Dublin on Friday after they talk to Putin.
Al Jazeera's Yulia Shapovalova, reporting from Moscow, said the US team would bring Putin an updated peace proposal. She said Dmitriev's presence suggested the talks would address some of the more complex issues.
One US goal, she said, is to persuade Putin to bring Europeans into the negotiations. "Ukraine and the US want the European partners to be involved while Moscow is adamant about talks without the Europeans," she said.
No breakthrough in Abu Dhabi
The visit follows two days of trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates that ended in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. They produced news of another planned major prisoner exchange but no breakthrough on ending the nearly five-year war.
The US said differences remained on major issues, including territory, though some progress had been made on post-war security guarantees. The talks were the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the US in nine months.
Kyiv has strongly rejected Putin's demand that it surrender all of the eastern region of Donbas in return for peace.
Audrey Macalpine, reporting from Kyiv, said Ukrainians do not expect the Moscow talks to yield results. "When it comes to the negotiations, not much has changed in terms of where these two sides stand," she said.
European leaders meet in Dublin
Leaders from more than 40 European countries gathered in Dublin on Thursday for a summit of the European Political Community on the continent's security. Zelenskyy, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte attended.
The community was established in 2022 as a forum for countries both inside and outside the 27-nation EU. Zelenskyy and his European allies are expected to discuss this week's Abu Dhabi talks.
