According to Luke Jacobs, tough sanctions “hurt” Russia.
The Kremlin is persistently sticking to its goals in the war against Ukraine. To force Putin to the negotiating table, it is necessary to strengthen the effective mechanism that already exists and has managed to “inflict significant pain on Russia.”
This opinion was expressed by the Belgian Ambassador to Ukraine, Luc Jacobs, in an interview with Channel 24.
The diplomat is convinced that it is possible to influence Putin by significantly increasing the cost of the war for the Russian Federation.
Luc Jacobs stressed the need to form a united front to send a clear message to the aggressor, which must be backed up by tough restrictive measures.
According to him, the primary task is a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of already approved sanctions packages, ways to improve them and ensure successful implementation.
He stated that there are still opportunities to introduce new sanctions. Therefore, it is important to act sensibly, to identify areas where the cost of war for Russia can be significantly increased and to identify areas for increasing pressure.
Also, Luke Jacobs noted, it is necessary to understand how to prevent Russia from circumventing sanctions by identifying the relevant channels.
“The sanctions are really hurting the Russian military machine,” the diplomat stressed.
That is why, he added, when the question of formulating the terms of a ceasefire arose, Russia immediately started talking about lifting sanctions.
Let us recall that, according to Vladimir Ohryzko, several factors can force Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war or at least sit down at the negotiating table on Ukrainian terms. One of them is strikes against the enemy's military machine. This is the best “sanction” against the Russian Federation.
