EU is confident that sanctions against Russia are working: Their goal is not to collapse Russian economy, but to prevent increased aggression against Ukraine.

The European Commission believes that the sanctions imposed on Russia are working, and their purpose is not to collapse the Russian economy, but to make it more difficult for Putin to intensify his aggression against Ukraine.

According to Censor.NET, citing European Pravda, this was stated by the spokesperson for the EU External Action Service, Peter Stano, at a briefing in Brussels.

Stano stressed that the purpose of European sanctions is not to bring down the Russian economy, but, along with other instruments, to make it more difficult for Vladimir Putin to intensify his aggression against Ukraine.

‘Although sanctions are a medium- to long-term measure that will only show their full effectiveness in the medium to long term, we can already say that sanctions are actually working. Because Putin has not achieved any of his goals with which he started this illegal aggression against Ukraine,’ Stano said.

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He noted that Putin wanted to capture Kyiv in three days and destroy Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

‘But Ukraine fought back, with the support of the EU. And the only thing left for Putin is to insidiously fire missiles and drones at civilian targets across Ukraine and wage a long war of attrition in eastern Ukraine,’ the spokesman said.

Earlier, the spokesperson for the EU External Action Service, Peter Stano, said that the EU did not refuse to recognise Vladimir Putin as the president of Russia, as all member states could not reach a consensus on this issue. He also assured that the participation of several EU diplomats in Putin's so-called ‘inauguration’ on Tuesday did not call into question the EU's position on supporting Ukraine.