Poland's ambassador to EU hopes for ambitious new Russia sanctions

Poland's permanent representative at the EU has told PAP talks on a tenth raft of sanctions against Russia would continue on Thursday and that he hoped the measures would be "ambitious."

An EU source told PAP talks aimed at agreeing the bloc's tenth round of sanction on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine had stalled on Wednesday.

Poland once again raised the issue of Russia's illegal deportation of Ukrainian children, PAP learned, as well as possible embargoes on diamonds and nuclear energy, including sanctions on Russian state-owned atomic energy corporation Rosatom, and a reduction of exemptions on Russian rubber imports.

Poland also reportedly raised a joint initiative with the Baltic states on extending the sanctions criteria to include family members of Russian oligarchs and officials of the Kremlin regime.

One EU diplomat told PAP the bloc wanted the tenth package of sanctions to be specific, but "that's currently lacking."

The member state ambassadors decided to keep Russian oligarchs on the sanctions list with Hungary finally withdrawing its demand for some to be removed. Hungary, however, blocked a Polish proposal to extend the sanctions by 12 months rather than six, PAP was told.

According to PAP's sources, a French-Hungarian coalition opposed sanctions being imposed on Russia's atomic energy sector, and Poland and Germany disagreed over rubber import quotas with Berlin, supported by Rome, wanting higher limits.