Russia and Belarus carry out military drills amid rising tension – Europe live

Allies rehearsing scenarios of an attack on Belarus in the first such exercises since Russia invaded Ukraine

EU trade spokesperson Olof Gill also defended the EU's sanctions from criticism that they are not going far enough.

He said:

Our assessment is that the successive sanctions packages we have brought forward, which includes new initiatives plus additional initiatives to make the previous one stronger if that makes sense, our assessment is that those sanctions are working.

The economic evidence shows that they are having an impact on the Russian economy, and that is precisely what they intended to do.

Phasing out of Russian fossil fuels is something that we have been doing and are doing actively for a number already of years, since the beginning of the war, with a very clear roadmap, with now even a clear legislative proposal in order to phase out the remaining gas still entering the EU.

... This is something on which the EU has been very actively and we have a very, very clear roadmap, and how to go about it."