Robin Emmott and Sabine Siebold

BRUSSELS, (Reuters) – The European Union will impose economic sanctions against Russia if the country attacks Ukraine. Denmark stated Monday that it was ready and EU foreign ministers declared they would issue a unified warning.

East-West tensions are rising since Russia gathered troops close to Ukraine’s borders. Western countries have been worried that Moscow may be preparing for an invasion. Russia refutes such plans.

While divergent interests within the EU 27 could make it difficult to reach a common position, the EU has been sidelined in direct Russia-U.S. negotiations, although ministers insist that unity is essential.

As ministers met in Brussels for talks, Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuanian Foreign Minister said that Russia’s tactic was to “splinter” the West. This is a win we can’t afford to hand to the Russians.

Jeppe Kofod, Danish Foreign Minister, stated to reporters that he was ready to respond with new and comprehensive sanctions to Russia if it invades Ukraine.

However, he declined to specify which sectors would be targeted.

Putin must know what Russia is doing. Putin and his countrymen should also know the cost of using provocations or military forces in Europe to shift borders. We will take all sanctions necessary to protect our interests, including more severe ones than those in 2014.

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, the EU and the United States imposed economic sanctions against Moscow. They targeted its banking, energy, and defense sectors.

The U.S. Senate Democrats unveiled a bill that could potentially sanction Russian military officials and bankers. Although the EU claims it’s working with Washington to develop a package of sanctions, they have not provided any details.

Olaf Scholz (German Chancellor) has called on America and Europe to consider the consequences of sanctions.

When asked if Russia should be cut off from SWIFT’s global messaging network, Annalena Baerbock (German Foreign Minister) said that in Brussels “the hardest stick” might not be the right way to handle such an issue.

GAS DEPENDENCY

Alexander Schallenberg, Austrian Foreign Minister, stated that everything was possible but pointed out the dependence of Austria on Russia for 40 percent of its gas.

He said that sanctioning something not yet operational is not a threat when he was asked about sanctions for the Nord Stream 2 pipe from Russia to Germany.

Blinken is likely to attend the EU meeting online around 1400 GMT.

The U.S. top diplomats and Russian diplomats did not achieve any significant breakthrough in talks about Ukraine, but they still agreed to talk.

Jean Asselborn, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister, stated that “we are here to make sure war doesn’t break out.”

Josep Borrell, EU’s foreign policy chief, stated that the EU is not planning to pull diplomats from Ukraine. This was after Washington had announced such an action.

According to the British Embassy in Ukraine, some dependants and staff were being removed from Kyiv.