During a press conference on Friday, following his meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the head of the Greek government, Tusk faced a question about whether the working meetings had discussed further sanctions on Russia.

He replied, “Just yesterday, at the table we were sitting at, there was an agreement that serious efforts should be made to use frozen Russian assets, not just the interest. The capital, which is at the disposal of Western countries, amounts to EUR 250–300 billion.”

On Thursday, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the Secretary General of the RE, Thérèse Blanchet, and the leaders of six countries: Estonia, Finland, Greece, Spain, Luxembourg, and Ireland, visited Warsaw to jointly discuss the EU’s plans for the next five years. Prime Minister Tusk’s meeting with foreign leaders took place as part of the ‘Strategic Agenda’ consultations. The leaders discussed, among other things, border security issues and further support for Ukraine.

Prime Minister Tusk noted, “More and more citizens of the European Union are asking: why should we bear the costs of war when Russian money is available?”

“It seems that we are gradually getting closer to decisions that should enable the use of these funds frozen in banks,” he added.

Tusk also said that “the topic of the ‘shadow fleet’, i.e. unflagged ships carrying Russian oil, is also emerging”, but no one is fully able to document this. “There is, among other things, one very important reason why the blocking of the ‘shadow fleet’ should be considered. It is an ecological reason, because there are enough reasons why these ships should not be allowed to transport at sea.”

When asked about the ban on grain imports from Russia and Belarus, he responded “a 50 percent duty, which the (European) Commission can impose with the consent of a qualified majority, seems more practical. A 50 percent duty on Russian and Belarusian grains eliminates their competitiveness.”