German Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has called for the import of Russian uranium for European nuclear power plants to be banned by new EU sanctions. At the end of a trip to Ukraine, he also demanded that gaps in the current sanctions regime be closed. He did not name any countries, but a ban on uranium imports from Russia would hit nuclear power plants in France, Hungary and other EU countries.

Konrad Schuller

Political correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

Habeck had met in Kiev with President Volodymyr Zelenskyj and several members of the government. On the way back in a special train of the Ukrainian state railway, he said on Wednesday night that his interlocutors had drawn his attention to sanctions gaps "in the field of nuclear". He was asked why the import of "uranium for nuclear fuel rods" into the EU had not yet been sanctioned, and he found that there was "no good answer".

Referring to those European countries that use Russian uranium for their nuclear power plants, Habeck said he understood they were "dependent," but Germany was "also dependent on gas and coal supplies." "And one year after the beginning of the war, I think there must now be efforts, or a concrete end date for the order of uranium." This is "reasonable", even if it means "a change" for some.

In addition, Habeck also demanded that the European punitive measures already in force be enforced more strictly. There is "clear data that the existing sanctions are circumvented via third countries". This is neither a "game of hide-and-seek" nor a "trivial offense" and "in no way acceptable". Those who circumvent sanctions undermine all efforts to end Russia's war against Ukraine.

The suspicion that EU sanctions are being lifted in several countries outside Europe is based on the observation that exports of certain war-critical goods from the EU to these countries have multiplied since the beginning of Russia's major attack on Ukraine. This seems to be particularly noticeable in military vehicles, but also, for example, in washing machines, whose electronic components can be used for weapons. Several of these countries appear to be located in Asia. However, new sanctions and stricter controls will not be easy to enforce, because the states of the EU can only decide on such a thing unanimously.