The pause in agreeing on new sanctions in Europe has already been too long. The fifth sanction package was imposed back on 8 April, therefore, a lot of time has passed without strengthening the European sanctions on russia, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his address.
"Today, one of the key tasks was to communicate regarding the European Union's approval of the sixth sanctions package," – Zelenskyy reported.
He talked about this while addressing the leaders of the European countries who gathered at the European Council meeting.
Zelenskyy emphasized that oil is the key point of the sixth sanctions package. In the President's opinion, Europe will have to give up russian oil and petroleum products anyway, and the sooner that happens, the more complete the abandonment of Russian oil will be, and the more it will benefit Europe itself in the end.
Also, Ukraine's President on 30 May discussed the sanctions' strengthening with the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Catherine Colonna who visited Kyiv. Besides the sanctions, they discussed defence support for Ukraine, our European integration, and the necessity to act much faster to prevent the food crisis in the world from escalating.
As Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned, as a result of russia's blocking of our ports at the Black sea and seizing our part of the Azov sea coast, we cannot export 22 million tonnes of grain which are already at the warehouses of our country. Russia's blocking of our exports destabilizes the situation globally, as a result, food price rises in different countries, and a threat of famine is emerging in Africa, Asia, and several states of Europe.
"This threat can grow into a new migrant crisis. And this is what russian leadership wants. They are deliberately creating this problem. So that the whole of Europe faces difficulties. And so that Ukraine does not receive billions of dollars for its exports. These are the billions that our economy really needs now. And the inhabitants of African and Asian countries are used by the russian state simply as a bargaining chip," – Zelenskyy highlighted.
He added that russians are lying when they say that some sanctions allegedly don't allow them to increase their food products' exports. As if they want to prevent the crisis but the sanctions allegedly won't let them.
First, russian food exports weren't blocked by sanctions. And second – the russian occupiers stole at least half a million tonnes of grain from our occupied territories and now are looking for an opportunity to illegally sell it somewhere. Sell it in a way that would make them money on stolen goods and keep the shortage in the legal market.
Also, Zelenskyy discussed the food crisis problem with Turkey's President Erdoğan. They talked about ways to ensure normal traffic from Ukrainian ports at the Black sea and, of course, how to speed out the ending of this war – russia's war against our state. Also, the parties discussed further defence cooperation between Ukraine and Turkey.
The President of Ukraine reported that today in the Luhansk region the occupiers disrupted evacuation from the area of hostilities by shelling the car which was on its way to pick up local civilians. During this shelling, a French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff who worked on the French TV channel BFM TV was lethally wounded.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his sincere condolences to Frederic's colleagues and family, pointing out that he became the 32nd media worker who has been killed since 24 February.
"The situation in Donbas remains extremely difficult. The russian army is trying to gather overwhelming forces in certain areas to put more and more pressure on our defenders. There, in Donbas, the maximum combat power of the russian army is now gathered," – the President noted, adding that Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Kurakhove, Slovyansk, and some other settlements remain key targets for the occupiers specifically in this direction.
Zelenskyy recalled that russian forces on 30 May shelled Kharkiv again. They also shelled our Sumy region's area over the border between Ukraine and russia. The fighting for the Kherson region is ongoing as well.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy highlighted the necessity of imposing new sanctions against russia in his address to the European Council.