The Europeans act is if they don’t want the Ukraine-Russia war to ever end. From Simplicius at simplius76.substack.com:
The Russia-US negotiations have concluded, with the joint statement announcing an attempt at a energy and Black Sea ceasefire. Lost in the shuffle were the announcements that SWIFT sanctions would be lifted on key Russian banks dealing with the grain and fertilizer initiative. In fact, Trump said “we’re looking at all of them”, implying several conditions would have to be met; in short: he’s insinuating the lifting of all sanctions.
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But as per usual, the proceedings have already been mired in hangups and controversies, with European allies balking at the SWIFT demands. They have now roundly rejected any sanctions relief until a ‘total withdrawal’ of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Brussels has rejected Russia’s demand to lift EU restrictions on a key agricultural bank as part of a partial ceasefire deal, saying its sanctions regime will stay in place until the “unconditional withdrawal” of Moscow’s troops from Ukraine.
Likewise, according to the Kremlin, the ‘energy ceasefire’ was violated shortly after signing by Ukrainian strikes on Belgorod and Crimean energy infrastructure. Conversely, Ukraine claimed Russia struck energy targets around Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, causing momentary power outages.
