EU Pressured to Punish Iran Over Arming Russia

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

Iran’s increasing military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine will be a key topic when EU foreign and defense ministers gather in Brussels starting today. The bloc will adopt sanctions on Iran over its violent crackdown on peaceful protestors, but some ministers want additional punitive measures over Tehran’s drone and missile transfers to Russia. A top Russian security official met with Iranian leaders in Tehran last week to discuss “strategic cooperation.” “We are witnessing the fight for freedom and justice, and we are witnessing how Iranian drones are attacking Ukrainian cities and how they are killing people,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at the weekend. “All of this is completely unacceptable.” The ministers will hear from Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov just days after Russia withdrew from Kherson, a development the Kremlin has sought to distance from Vladimir Putin.