EU plans Russia trade sanctions over 'sham' Ukraine votes

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union countries should impose “biting sanctions” on Russian trade and hit officials responsible for “sham referendums” held in parts of Ukraine as Moscow ramps up the war, senior EU officials said Wednesday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the Kremlin-orchestrated referendums on joining Russia “are an illegal attempt to grab land and change international borders by force.”

“We are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation,” she said, as she unveiled what she described as “sweeping new import bans on Russian products.”

"This will keep Russian products out of the European market and deprive Russia of an additional 7 billion euros in revenue,” von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

She said the EU's executive branch also advises extending the bloc's own export ban “to deprive the Kremlin’s military complex of key technologies," including electronic components and specific chemical substances.

The proposals still must be endorsed by the bloc's 27 countries.

Von der Leyen also said the EU should “lay the legal basis” for a price cap on Russian oil, without elaborating. The bloc already agreed to ban sea-borne crude starting Dec. 5, but some member countries still require Russian supplies at low prices.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial powers pledged this month to impose a cap on the price of Russian oil in a bid to limit the Kremlin’s revenues, while also curtailing the war’s impact on energy prices and inflation.

The ministers said they would impose the cap by barring insurance or shipping companies from helping Russia sell oil at prices above the set limit.

On top of that, von der Leyen recommended a ban on EU nationals sitting...