EU's 14th sanctions package must target circumvention, energy exports, Zelenskyy advisor says

The European Union's upcoming 14th sanctions package against Russia must do more to choke off energy exports and clamp down on circumvention by third parties, an advisor to the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNBC.

Vladyslav Vlasiuk said it was also vital to tighten export controls on critical technologies used within Moscow's military equipment. He noted that EU states would need to work more cohesively for sanctions to stand a chance of crossing the line by the end of next month as planned.

"The most critical aspect of the 14th sanctions package is its adoption by the end of June, but some member states currently pose a challenge to this," Vlasiuk said via email Thursday.

The EU's special envoy for the implementation of sanctions, David O'Sullivan, was in Kyiv on Thursday to discuss the latest sanctions package amid ongoing pushback from member states such as Hungary. Among the proposed measures is a ban on Russian liquified natural gas, or LNG, exports and a crackdown on sanctions circumvention via countries including Kremlin ally Belarus.

The new energy proposals would not bar Russian LNG imports to the EU, but would prevent the bloc from reexporting them to other markets, choking off a key trade route for Russia.

Nataliia Shapoval, a member of the Yermak-McFaul International Working Group on Russian Sanctions, a think tank which advises on EU sanctions, said the LNG proposals were an attempt to restrict both Russia's current and future energy revenues.

"LNG is the leverage that Russia still maintains," Shapoval, who is also head of the KSE Institute, said over the phone.

Russia said Wednesday that such a ban would hurt the EU more than it would damage Russia, and that some LNG supplies were already