Sanctions against Russia have not been approved by the UN mandate and are not legally binding from the point of view of international law, EU Special Representative for sanctions David O’Sullivan said in an interview with the Kyiv Independent. The “moral and economic strength” of the restrictions rests on the anti-Russian coalition, which The EU has, the diplomat said.

To combat circumvention of restrictions, Mr. O’Sullivan sometimes visits third countries that are not involved in the sanctions, he said. “I have spent a lot of time in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Turkey, Serbia, the UAE and Southeast Asia,” the diplomat said. As the Kyiv Independent clarifies, as a result, several states from this list themselves were included in the EU sanctions lists so that Moscow could not use them to circumvent restrictions.

The Special Representative noted that temporary concessions regarding Russian energy resources, which the United States and The United Kingdom went into action in early 2026 due to a price spike, which does not mean a “fundamental change in sanctions policy.” He said that sanctions against Russia should remain in place, even if the European Union has to suffer economic losses because of this.

https://news.mail.ru/politics/71425343/