The European Union is expected to unveil the latest, 19th, package of sanctions against Russia today, which the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said would target crypto, banks, and energy, among others.
The EU is also reportedly looking at imposing sanctions on companies in China and India helping Russia’s oil trade, as reported previously by Bloomberg (£).
The move comes amid growing pressure from the US president, Donald Trump, for the bloc to also accelerate its plans to phase out Russian oil.
Speaking alongside UK prime minister Keir Starmer, he said yesterday that the was “to do other things” to help Europeans push back against Russia, but “not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia”.
“You can’t [do that], that’s not playing fair with the United States, and we can’t have that,” he says.
Let’s see if the sanctions indeed come today, and what are the details.
It’s Friday, 19 September 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.