Denys Shmyhal: Europe must completely abandon russian energy resources

Europe has realized that russia is waging an energy war against it, and now this understanding must be converted into a complete abandon of russian energy resources, stressed the Prime Minister DEnys Shmyhal at a Gov’t session Wednesday.

“The key issue, which we also actively discussed in Brussels, is the energy embargo. The coal embargo is already in place. This results in a USD 8 billion loss for russia per annum. Oil and gas revenues of the russian budget in August were at an all-time low since the beginning of the war, but this was not enough. It is vital to ensure an oil embargo introduced by the European Union to work properly, as well as a decision to be made on a phased gas embargo,” urged the Prime Minister.

According to Denys Shmyhal, among the issues raised was a significant restriction on the price of russian gas that will significantly limit the kremlin's ability to finance the war in Ukraine.

An emphasis was placed also on a visa ban for russians. The Prime Minister added the first step had already been done in this direction: “The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed to completely suspend the 2007 visa facilitation agreement with the russian federation.”

Another type of sanctions that must be brought to a logical conclusion is the disconnection of all russian and belarusian banks from SWIFT.