EU seeks to further tighten sanctions on Moscow

On Thursday, the European Union imposed more sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine, after the bloc's member states backed a series of measures that would include gold imports and tighten export controls on some high-technology goods, an AP report said.

European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the “reinforced, prolonged EU sanctions against the Kremlin" send "a strong signal to Moscow: we will keep the pressure high for as long as it takes". The details of the sanctions were unclear since they still needed to be posted in the EU's official journal.

EU officials have been seeking all week to tighten the extensive package of sanctions on Russia, hoping that the measures might finally start to have a decisive impact on the war in Ukraine.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that at the moment, “the most important thing is a ban on Russian gold"— Moscow’s second-largest export industry after energy.

The Group of Seven leading industrial nations last month already committed to a gold ban, arguing that Russia had used its gold to back up its currency, and, by extension, to circumvent the impact of several rounds of sanctions that nations around the world had already imposed on Moscow after the beginning of its war with Ukraine on February 24.

On top of the restrictive measures, the EU also decided to grant £500 million to boost military aid to Ukraine.

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