KYIV (AFP) - The European Union will discuss tightening sanctions against Russia on Monday (July 18), as Moscow is accused of using the continent's largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and launch missiles on the surrounding regions of southern Ukraine.
Describing "a deluge of fire", regional governor Valentyn Reznichenko on Saturday said Grad missiles had pounded residential areas. "Rescuers found two dead people under the ruins" in the riverside city of Nikopol, he said.
With the conflict grinding on and increasingly spilling out into global energy and food crises, the EU's foreign ministers are considering banning gold purchases from Russia, which would align with sanctions already imposed by the Group of Seven partners.
More Russian figures could also be placed on the EU's blacklist.
"Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after forwarding the proposed measures.
Brussels is expected to hold initial sanctions discussions on Monday, but not make a same-day decision, according to a senior EU official.
More than 20 weeks since Russia invaded its neighbour, killing thousands and displacing millions of Ukrainians, Moscow announced on Saturday that it would step up its military operations.
The war-ravaged nation's President Volodymyr Zelensky has already accused Russia of seeking to inflict maximum damage, but pledged that Ukraine would "endure".
In his Saturday evening address, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine has "withstood Russia's brutal blows" and managed to take back some of the territory it lost since the start of the war, and will eventually recapture more occupied land.
"We will endure. We will win", he said, and "rebuild our lives".
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