EU expected to unveil latest round of sanctions on Russia – Europe live

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EU leaders get invite to meet in Copenhagen for talks on defence, Ukraine

Meanwhile, EU leaders have just received a formal invitation to their informal meeting of the European Council in Copenhagen on 1 October.

The European Council president, António Costa, said in a letter that the meeting will be focused on “strengthening European common defence readiness and reinforcing our support for Ukraine,” also in the context of Russia’s recent airspace violations in Poland and Romania.

The leaders are expected to discuss how they can meet the 2030 defence readiness targets, and see what else can be done to support Ukraine, including a chat on the EU accession pathway.

The invite comes on the back of Costa’s tour of 23 EU countries in the last few weeks – four ar still on his list – as he wanted to get an idea of what makes the capitals tick and what they are most interested in getting done through the EU.

His spokesperson said that while “perspective may differ … all leaders converge on the need to build faster, a more strategically autonomous Europe, equipped with the tools and processes to be more self-reliant.”

There will be also another European Council at the end of October, but this time in Brussels.

Morning opening: New EU sanctions on Russia could come today

The European Union is expected to unveil the latest, 19th, package of sanctions against Russia today, which the commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said would target crypto, banks, and energy, among others.

The European Commission building in Brussels. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

The EU is also reportedly looking at imposing sanctions on companies in China and India helping Russia’s oil trade, as reported previously by Bloomberg (£).

The move comes amid growing pressure from the US president, Donald Trump, for the bloc to also accelerate its plans to phase out Russian oil.

Speaking alongside UK prime minister Keir Starmer, he said yesterday that the was “to do other things” to help Europeans push back against Russia, but “not when the people that I’m fighting for are buying oil from Russia”.

“You can’t [do that], that’s not playing fair with the United States, and we can’t have that,” he says.

Let’s see if the sanctions indeed come today, and what are the details.

It’s Friday, 19 September 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Good morning.