The UK and EU are on a collision course over the lucrative gas exports funding Russia’s assault on Ukraine, after Brussels ignored a plea to set a “clear timetable” to eliminate supplies.
The clash will come to a head at this week’s G7 meeting, when Liz Truss will confront fellow foreign ministers with a demand for much tougher sanctions that would send Moscow’s economy “back into the Soviet era”.
Speaking in Poland, the foreign secretary said she would be urging western allies to join the UK in banning Russian ships from ports, sanctioning more Russian banks, and targeting the country’s gold.
A new package should also involve “agreeing a clear timetable to eliminate imports of Russian oil, coal and gas”, she argued.
But speaking soon afterwards, the president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, did not mention Russian gas, even as she unveiled a fifth package of sanctions against Vladimir Putin.
The EU will ban imports of coal, wood, cement, liquors and seafood worth €9.5bn (£7.9bn) a year, while considering an embargo on oil as well.
However, while the coal imports are worth an annual €4bn to Russia, that is dwarfed by the €100bn paid to Russia by EU countries last year for its oil and gas.
The announcement came as the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, took his campaign for Russia to be punished more harshly to the United Nations, demanding that those in the Kremlin should face Nuremberg-style war crimes trials.
Setting out the brutality of the Russian forces in harrowing evidence, Mr Zelensky said: “They cut off limbs, slashed their throats, women were raped and killed in front of their children.
“Their tongues were pulled out only because the aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear.”
It is much easier for the UK to wean itself off Russian gas than it is for the EU, which depends on Moscow for 40 per cent of its supply compared with just 4 per cent for the UK.
One online tracker estimates that the EU has paid Russia almost €20bn for its energy since the invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February, of which around €9.7bn was for gas.
Germany is seen as the main obstacle to a boycott, arguing that the economic hit would weaken it and the EU at the very time it needs to be strong enough to confront Russia’s aggression.
Indeed, there have been fears that Russia might turn off the supply itself, in retaliation for western sanctions and the weapons sent by Nato allies to stiffen Ukraine’s resistance.
But Timothy Ash, a senior strategist at asset management company BlueBay, told The Independent that the EU’s actions were useless “unless you impose a total energy boycott”.
“The EU is funding Russia’s genocide in Ukraine as a result. Germany has learned nothing from the Second World War unless it does this,” he said, while arguing that Germany is “increasingly isolated” on the issue.
In her speech, Ms Truss revealed that the west had frozen more than $350bn (£266bn) of Russia’s $604bn foreign currency reserves – 60 per cent of the total.
“Our coordinated sanctions are pushing the Russian economy back into the Soviet era,” she said, but added: “We can and must step up.”
The UK government has said it will ban Russian gas imports, but it has not set a date, despite committing to “phasing out” the 16 per cent of its diesel imports it receives from Russia by the end of the year.
It argues that deliveries are “dropping off naturally” with the sanctioning of Russian liquid natural gas and alternative supplies being available from the Middle East.
Both G7 and Nato foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday – one day before Boris Johnson hosts Olaf Scholz, the new German chancellor, in Downing Street.
