Photos of massacres committed by Russian troops before they left various locations north and west of kyiv they doubled the pressure for the European Union to tighten sanctions against Moscow. The first reaction of European institutions was to talk about “atrocities”.

Diplomats of the 27 Member States before community institutions prepared a few days ago a package of measures that must be approved this Wednesday and that they seek to close the holes through which Russian companies and oligarchs have escaped sanctions. Irpin, Bucha, the new martyr cities, opened up another scenario.

On Sunday night the first messages from the European Heads of State and Government began to arrive. If those from the east are more stringent and directly spoke of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity”, in some cases those from Western Europe condemned the massacres, demanded justice but did not qualify the crimes. The European Commission and NATO cited the most likely crime due to the killings: war crimes.

The official reaction, from European ‘foreign minister’ Josep Borrell, assured that “the European Union will continue to support Ukraine and move forward, as a matter of urgency, to work on new sanctions against Russia”. Borrell said the images coming from Ukraine were “displayed the real face of brutal war of the aggression that Russia is waging against Ukraine and its people. ”

“Cruelty”

Borrell added: “The Russian authorities are responsible for these atrocities, focused while they are in effective control of the area. They are subject to international law of occupation. Those who commit war crimes and other serious offenses, as well as responsible government officials and military leaders, will be held accountable. ”

There will be more sanctions but they will come with anger in Europe. The pressure for the package of sanctions under negotiation is the hardest so far and almost almost cut off trade between the European Union and Russia It mainly comes from countries like Poland or the Baltics.

Lithuania will be the first country to stop buying Russian gas, oil and coal by the end of this month. The Lithuanians also expelled the Russian ambassador and they called their ambassador to Moscow back to their home. Poland wants to do the same proposal but wants to do it on a European level and for that it has requested an extraordinary European summit.

The penalty for stopping Russia’s purchase of hydrocarbons will be the most severe. Moscow is paid daily by 27 European Union countries 1,000 million euros for gas, oil and coal. They add more than 300,000 million euros a year, more than a third of Russia’s public spending.

The Russian government is playing with the idea that Europeans will not stop buying hydrocarbons because their economy will go into recession and inflation will continue to grow. Putin believes that between their electoral interests and the end of the war, many European governments would prefer to defend their electoral interests.

The gas

You may be right if you look at Berlin. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said it was impossible to stop buying Russia’s gas “right now.” Berlin wants more sanctions (no one has refused so far) but he did not want to touch the gas. Russia meets more than half of Germany’s gas needs.

Although there is a division in the German government: Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said the European Union should “debate” Russia’s gas import ban.

The Austrian government follows the same policy. His chancellor Alexander Schallenberg told the public broadcaster on Monday that his country prefers it “Other options”. 80% of Austrian gas supply is Russian.

The European Commission has announced the creation of a team of lawyers and investigators that will oversee the “collection of evidence on war crimes and crimes against humanity.” Brussels proposes to kyiv to send teams of its services and judicial coordination and Europol (the European Interpol) and is already discussing how it can coordinate its work with the International Criminal Court.

PB