EU Preparing Sanctions Against Rosatom

Last month, the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell told Euractiv that the EU has nearly exhausted its options for punitive measures against Russia, and thus, its attention needs to shift to financial and military support for Ukraine. In spite of that fact, EU commissioners met on April 21 to discuss the next round of sanctions. The hardliners are pushing for sanctions against Rosatom. Both Washington and London placed a visa ban on Oleg Romanenko, the director of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear plant in Europe, which has been under control of the Russian forces since March 2022. Currently there are 15 Russian nuclear plants in the Czech Republic (6), Slovakia (5), Finland (2) and Bulgaria (2). Hungary has four, with plans to build two more Russian reactors. Washington has not yet sanctioned Rosatom itself. Germany and France in 2022 purchased €452 million worth of uranium from Rosatom, with which both countries still have contracts.