Live: EU leaders to meet to agree on more Russia sanctions

Issued on: 12/12/2022 – 07:42

7:25am: EU leaders to meet for more Russia sanctions

European Union foreign ministers are set to meet to try to agree on further sanctions on Russia and Iran and an additional €2 billion for arms deliveries to Ukraine. They will discuss a ninth package of sanctions that would add almost 200 individuals and entities to the already very long EU sanctions list.

However, it remained unclear whether Hungary will block some decisions, resorting to what diplomats have denounced as “blackmail diplomacy” due to a dispute over locked EU funds for Budapest.

“There is agreement, in principle, but there’s also the big elephant in the room,” a senior EU diplomat told reporters, referring to Budapest’s use of its veto power. “It’s a type of blackmail diplomacy that we would rather not see but it is what it is.”

4:01am: Zelensky’s talks with world leaders signal diplomatic flurry around Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held talks with US President Joe Biden and with the leaders of Turkey and France on Sunday, stepping up diplomatic activity around a war started by Russia nearly 10 months ago.

“We are constantly working with partners,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, adding that he expects some “important results” next week from a series of international events that will tackle the situation in Ukraine.

While Zelensky has held numerous talks with Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan since Russian forces invaded in late February, the accumulation of discussions in just one day is not a regular event.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)