EU holds firm: No sanction relief without Russian troop withdrawal

The Kremlin announced on Tuesday that Russia agrees to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea. However, it emphasized that this would require lifting sanctions imposed on Rosselkhozbank, a Russian state bank servicing the agricultural sector, as well as other Russian financial organizations involved in international trade of food products and fertilizers, by reconnecting them to the SWIFT system.

Their return to SWIFT, the international financial communication system, would require EU's consent, as it is one of the elements of EU sanctions. The European Commission was questioned about this issue on Thursday.

The sanctions were imposed because of the war that Russia started against Ukraine, and the end of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified aggression, along with the unconditional withdrawal of all Russian armed forces from the entire territory of Ukraine, are among the main prerequisites for changing or lifting the sanctions. "Russia must demonstrate genuine political will to end its illegal and unprovoked war of aggression," said European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper during the conference in Brussels.

Meanwhile, European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill explained that Russian and Belarusian banks cannot use the international SWIFT payment system because it limits their ability to finance Russia's aggression.

The spokesperson stated that this means that banks cannot obtain foreign currency or transfer assets abroad. Gill explained that this has negative consequences for the economies of Russia and Belarus because if they want to conduct these transactions, they have to pay more, adding that we often hear from Russia that European sanctions and other measures have no impact on its economy. The spokesperson commented that it's strange, then, that they are now trying to force EU to withdraw them.