The finding of murdered civilians in the Kiev suburb of Bucha strengthens calls for an EU ban on Russian energy imports. For the time being, however, this is at best conceivable for oil and coal.
Hands tied behind the back, shots in the head, clear signs of torture: The pictures of more than 400 civilians in the Kiev suburb of Bucha have also alarmed the state chancellery of the EU member states. While the 27 heads of state and government decided at their European Council meeting in Brussels the week before last that there should be no new sanctions for the time being because they wanted to close loopholes first, the Bucha massacre clearly turned the mood. Emmanuel Macron, France’s President, said on Monday that he was in favor of a ban on imports of Russian coal and Russian crude oil. On Wednesday, the ambassadors of the 27 member states in Brussels will discuss the EU’s fifth package of sanctions since the start of the Russian attack on the Ukrainians.
But one thing is already clear: the Europeans will not dare to touch the greatest lever to paralyze the Russian economy and thus possibly persuade President Vladimir Putin to give in for the foreseeable future. An EU embargo on Russian natural gas, as demanded by the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, is politically unfeasible in the current situation.