The EU has pulled back from threatening Russia with immediate sanctions over the bombing of Aleppo as a UK-backed plan ran into opposition from Italy.

At a summit of EU leaders on Thursday, Britain, France and Germany made a last-ditch push to issue a sanctions warning to Russia if “current atrocities” in Aleppo continue.

Despite vocal support from Theresa May and her French counterpart, François Hollande, the plan failed to win the necessary unanimity to pass.

The EU’s three biggest countries had wanted to warn Russia that individuals and organisations linked to the bombing of Aleppo could face asset freezes and travel bans if the violence continues.

Arriving at the summit in Brussels, the British prime minister had urged fellow leaders to press the Kremlin to stop its “appalling [and] sickening” atrocities in Syria.

May told her counterparts over dinner that Russia posed a challenge to Europe’s democratic values and institutions, according to Downing Street sources.

But after talks finished around midnight a reference to sanctions in the summit communique was dropped and replaced with a more vague statement: “The EU is considering all available options should the current atrocities continue.”

Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, told reporters “it was difficult to imagine” this would mean further sanctions against Russia.



The tense debate ranged widely over tensions between the EU and Russia. Leaders discussed airspace violations, disinformation campaigns, cyber attacks and “interference” in the political processes of the EU, said Donald Tusk, the European council president.

“It is clear that Russia’s strategy is to weaken the EU,” he said. “Increasing tensions with Russia is not our aim. We are simply reacting to steps taken by Russia.”

Earlier in the week EU foreign ministers said Russia could be guilty of possible war crimes in Aleppo and agreed to widen sanctions against Syrians implicated in the bombing.

Britain’s impending exit from the EU has raised questions about whether the bloc will be able to stay united on Russia. May believed Russia poses three separate threats, a No 10 source said: a challenge to Europe’s democratic values and institutions, “aggressive behaviour” in eastern Ukraine and the bombing campaign in Syria.

She wanted leaders to take a clear stance that Russia’s agenda in Syria was not about fighting Islamic State or al-Qaida, but encouraging the Syrian ruler, Bashar al-Assad, to think he could win, thereby undermining western efforts to secure peace, the source said.



After the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, met Hollande and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, on Wednesday night, a “humanitarian pause” in attacks on rebel-held eastern Aleppo came into effect on Thursday morning.

But EU sources said efforts towards a peace settlement had a long way to go. “The Russians were not being very constructive,” said one diplomat with knowledge of the talks.

Russia offered to stop bombing eastern Aleppo for 11 hours a day over four days but the proposal was seen as insufficient to bring about a peace deal.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights about 2,700 people have been killed or injured in Aleppo since Syrian forces, backed by Russia, launched an all-out assault in September.

The EU imposed economic sanctions against Russia in July 2014 in response to Russia’s arming of rebels in eastern Ukraine and failure to cooperate in the investigation over the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, which killed 298 people. Talk of ending those sanctions, which target Russian banks, energy companies and arms makers, had “completely disappeared without trace”, an EU diplomat said.