The Kremlin said Friday that the EU's refusal to ease sanctions on Russia shows the bloc does not want peace in Ukraine.
Moscow is demanding the West remove sanctions on Rosselkhozbank -- the Russian Agricultural Bank -- as a precondition to restoring a deal on the safe passage of Ukrainian cargo in the Black Sea.
"An integral part of the Black Sea deal is the lifting of sanctions on a Russian bank," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
"If European countries don't want to go down this path, it means they don't want to go down the path of peace in unison with the efforts shown in Moscow and Washington," he added.
Russia walked away from a UN and Turkey-brokered deal on enabling exports from Ukraine's southern ports in 2023, accusing the West of not removing obstacles to its own exports of fertilisers and other exports.
Under EU sanctions, Rosselkhozbank has been kicked off the Belgium-based SWIFT financial messaging network, which underpins international payments.
European leaders in Paris on Thursday rejected easing any of the sanctions imposed on Moscow over its offensive on Ukraine.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there was "complete clarity that now is not the time for the lifting of sanctions," saying instead they should be strengthened.
In a separate briefing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said lifting sanctions would be a "grave mistake" and "makes no sense" without a truce.
Peskov also commented on Russian President Vladimir Putin's call to remove Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and install a "temporary administration" in Kyiv.
The Kremlin spokesman said there was "total lack of control" over the Ukrainian army, which he accused of trying to attack Ukrainian energy sites "on a daily basis".
He said that "at the moment" Russia was sticking to a commitment not to target Ukrainian sites -- despite multiple claims by Kyiv, including on Friday, that Russia has hit its energy facilities.
"The Russian side reserves the right, if the Kyiv regime does not observe the moratorium, also not to follow it," Peskov said.
With AFP
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