Brussels accelerates work on the tenth package of sanctions against Russia. New EU restrictions will also apply to Belarus. According to PAP sources, the countries want to adopt a new package for the Ukraine-EU summit scheduled for early February in Kyiv..

The ninth package of EU sanctions was adopted in December. Although the EU countries favoring tougher sanctions against Russia were not entirely happy with this, its adoption was driven by the belief that the EU must demonstrate unity on this issue before the end of the year.. As a result, some countries agreed to make concessions and give up some of their demands in order to achieve consensus..

In recent days, work on another package of sanctions has been gaining momentum in Brussels, as the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has already spoken about..

“We will put pressure on the Kremlin as much as necessary with sanctions. We will extend sanctions to those who support Russia's war, such as Belarus or Iran,” she said at the conference..

According to PAP sources, this rhetoric is accompanied by concrete facts.. This was confirmed by the Permanent Representative of Poland to the EU, Andrzej Sadosz..

“Work has really sped up. Poland in the group of like-minded countries is now submitting proposals for further sanctions. The tightening of existing restrictions is also an ongoing process,” he said..

According to one of the EU diplomats, the reason for the acceleration of work on sanctions is the upcoming Ukraine-EU summit.. Also a catalyst is the anniversary of the start of the war.

EU diplomats are reluctant to talk about the details of a new package of sanctions, because - as they emphasize - it is important not to lose the element of surprise.

Another attempt to impose sanctions against the export of Russian diamonds will be made, according to PAP.

“The cost of diamond exports for the Russian budget is estimated at 4.5 billion euros. This is a rather big amount,” said one of the EU diplomats..

The new sanctions will also apply to products that could potentially be used by the Russian military.. Sanctions lists can be expanded. They will include other persons responsible for Russian aggression against Ukraine and war crimes.

New sanctions will also be imposed against Belarus for continuing to support Russia's military actions against Ukraine.. In this case, as one of the PAP diplomats said, we are talking about “synchronization of Belarusian sanctions with Russian ones, especially sectoral ones, in those areas where Minsk cooperates with Moscow militarily”.

The adoption of sanctions in the EU always requires unanimity. In this context, some diplomats fear that Hungary may be slow to adopt new restrictions, as it has been in the past..

“The Hungarians have already announced that they will not agree to the inclusion of some names in the sanctions lists. We can expect further tension with Budapest,” said one of the representatives of the EU countries.

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Earlier it was reported that the EU plans to discuss with the countries of the Big Seven (G7) the tenth package of sanctions against the Russian Federation..

The Wall Street Journal writes that the US and its allies are preparing the following sanctions against the Russian oil industry, aimed at limiting the price of Russian exports of petroleum products.

Hungarian openly pro-Russian gestures raise the question: why the EU does not eventually kick out the Kremlin's \? Unfortunately, it is impossible to exclude a country from the EU. But the EU has other tools too.. Read about how Brussels can influence Budapest in Dmitry Shulga's article "