Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday warned that Russia was building up its troops to take "revenge" on the West nearly a year into Moscow's invasion.
He levelled the warning in Kyiv alongside EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who said the 27-member bloc was looking to finalise another package of sanctions against Russia by February 24, exactly one year since Russia invaded.
"Now Russia is concentrating its forces. We all know that. It is preparing to try to take revenge, not only against Ukraine, but against a free Europe and the free world," Zelensky told a joint press conference with von der Leyen.
Von der Leyen said existing sanctions were already "eroding" Russia's economy, "throwing it back by a generation" and estimated that an existing oil price cap alone is costing Moscow around 160 million euros every day.
"We will introduce with our G7 partners an additional price cap on Russian petroleum products and by the 24th of February -- exactly one year since the invasion started -- we aim to have the 10th package of sanctions in place," she said.
Zelensky called on Europe to implement sanctions more quickly and said the West should take steps to clamp down on sanctions circumvention.
Von der Leyen arrived in Kyiv on Thursday with a team of commissioners and the EU's most senior diplomat Josep Borrell ahead of a Ukraine-EU summit on Friday in the war-torn country that is seeking EU membership.
-AFP
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