Ukraine has made a last-ditch plea to the EU, urging it to finally sanction Russia’s nuclear industry as punishment for unleashing its brutal invasion. Kyiv called on the European Commission to slap down sanctions on Euratom, Russia’s nuclear energy giant, in its tenth round of punishments against the Kremlin which the bloc is reportedly close to finalising.
Sanctions against Russia’s major state-owned oil and gas companies, which normally receive billions from Europe, have long been imposed as part of measures to stop funding Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest.
This includes a ban on debt financing for oil firms Rosneft and Transneft, and gas giant Gazprom Neft. The EU has also imposed oil embargoes and introduced an price cap on the power source.
But state civil nuclear power company Rosatom is yet to see any similar kind of constraints nearly a year into the war. And despite its efforts, Ukraine is finding it difficult to persuade the EU to impose anything.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told Politico on Wednesday: “We really need to change the narrative on Rosatom and on [the] Russian nuclear industry.”
It comes after diplomats previously said stated that a 10th sanctions package (which is reportedly close to being agreed on) would not include sanctions on Russia’s nuclear sector, leaving Rosatom off the list.
The European Commission initially said it would indeed try to draw up fresh sanctions targeting Russia’s civil nuclear sector. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the EU it should at the vert least issue sanctions against Rosatom.
But making it particularly difficult is Hungary, which warned that such a measure would harm the country’s “fundamental national interests”.
Budapest gets the bulk of its energy from Russia and intends on expanding its nuclear power plant in Paks, which Rosatom is set to help with. The Russian firm is set to build two reactors with capacity of 1.2 gigawatts each, in addition to the four reactors that are currently operating there.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday: “We had to act forcefully against the listing of Rosatom or Rosatom officials.
“Any sanctions on nuclear energy or Rosatom would harm Hungary’s fundamental national interests.”
On the opposite side, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said that he saw “a way for Rosatom to be added” to the sanctions list.
But EU diplomats were left disappointed by an earlier decision by the Commission to leave Rosatom sanctions off the table.
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One was quoted in Politico saying: “It’s sad. When it comes to the nuclear section… nobody told us that it’s not okay or it will be a problem. This is why we’re surprised.”
However, it may not only be Hungary that is hamstringing a tough clampdown on Russia’s nuclear industry. This is because the EU still relies on Russia for 20 percent of its uranium, which when is used as fuel for nuclear reactors.
Prof Paul Dorfman, an Associate Fellow from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex told previously told Express.co.uk: “Putin, Russia and Russia-controlled Kazakhstan supply 42 percent of all uranium of all reactors worldwide. 20 percent for the EU, 14 percent of the US and nearly 30 percent of their enrichment services.
“Russia is hugely involved in the uranium market in general and this is one of the key reasons why Russia has not necessarily been sanctioned in terms of nuclear, which is frankly astonishing.”
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