EU slashes 10pc of Russian imports with new sanctions

The European Union on Friday formally adopted new sweeping sanctions against Russia, including bans on the import of coal, wood, chemicals and other products which were estimated to slash at least 10 per cent of total imports from Moscow.

The measures also prevent many Russian vessels and trucks from accessing the EU, further crippling trade, and will ban all transactions with four Russian banks, including VTB.

The ban on coal, the first the EU has so far imposed on any energy import from Russia, will be fully effective from the second week of August. No new contracts can be signed from Friday.

Existing contracts will have to be terminated by the second week of August, meaning that Russia can continue to receive payments from the EU on coal exports until then.

"These latest sanctions were adopted following the atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Bucha and other places under Russian occupation," EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement.

The Kremlin has said that Western allegations Russian forces committed war crimes by executing civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha were a  "monstrous forgery" aimed at denigrating the Russian army.

The coal ban alone is estimated by the Commission to be worth 8 billion euros a year in lost revenues for Russia. That is twice as big as the EU Commission's head Ursula von der Leyen had said on Tuesday.

Oil and gas imports from Russia, which remain so far untouched, are together worth about 100 billion euros a year.

In addition to coal, the new EU sanctions ban imports from Russia of many other commodities and products, including wood, rubber, cement, fertilisers, high-end seafood, such as caviar, and spirits, such as vodka, for a total additional value estimated in 5.5 billion euros ($5.9 billion) a year.

An EU official said that the combined import bans were worth at least 10 per cent of what the EU buys from Russia in a year.