Brussels, The United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) were set today to impose new punishing sanctions targeting Russia, including a ban on all new investment in the country and an EU embargo on coal, after the incidence of Bucha town outside of Kyiv.

The European Commission’s proposed ban on coal imports would be the first EU sanctions targeting Russia’s lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said energy was key to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.

“A billion euro is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us since the beginning of the war. We have given him 35 billion euro. Compare that to the one billion that we have given to the Ukraine in arms and weapons,” Borrell said.

After several European countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, the European Commission proposed a fifth package of sanctions including a ban on coal imports that could be adopted as soon as today once unanimously approved by the 27-nation bloc’s ambassadors, the Associated Press (AP) news reported.

Source: Oman News Agency