Notes

Messages to Moscow. On Tuesday, the European Union approved a new round of sanctions on Russia in an attempt to stop Moscow’s use of third-country ships—known as its shadow fleet—to sell Russian oil illegally. The new measures banned 189 ships believed to be in the fleet from using EU ports or insurance companies. The European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen said the goal was to ratchet up pressure on the Kremlin to end its war in Ukraine.

But the U.S. seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Last month, President Donald Trump threatened Russia with new sanctions and called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine—but he backed away from these demands after a phone call on Monday with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. After which, Trump posted to social media, “Russia wants to do large-scale TRADE with the United States when this catastrophic ’bloodbath’ is over, and I agree.”

Now what?

—Michael Bluhm