Lithuania calls for EU sanctions against Russian grain
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Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius renewed calls for the EU to impose sanctions on Russian grain in a social media post on Oct. 8.
"Lithuania will propose not only banning such transit (of Russian grain through the EU), but also adding individual oligarchs from the Russian agricultural sector who are supporting the war to the list of sanctioned persons," Sinkevicius wrote on Facebook.
The comments were made in response to Russia's ongoing Black Sea blockade, which is slashing Ukraine's income from food exports but also putting importer countries in the Middle East and North Africa in a precarious situation.
And Kyiv accused Russia of striking cargo ships off the Black Sea coast of Romania and Bulgaria on Oct. 5 and 6, leading to civilians being killed.
"At the same time, Russia is using ports and infrastructure in Europe, including the Baltic States, to export its own grain," Sinkevicius said.
"This is an unacceptable situation, which has so far been tolerated on the grounds that EU sanctions do not apply to food products," he noted.
In an interview with the Kyiv Independent, the EU's sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan said the bloc has not pushed sanctions on agricultural goods "because it doesn't really affect the war machine."
O'Sullivan also noted that sanctions had already slashed EU trade with Russia by 75%, and a total decoupling is not necessarily the objective of the EU's sanctions policy.
Absent a change of EU policy, Sinkevicius said he has already ordered "stricter controls on the origin of grain to ensure that grain stolen from Ukraine or mixed with other grain is not transported through Lithuania."
"We will not allow the Russian war machine to profit by using our infrastructure as a gateway to global markets," Sinkevicius said.
