French minister says EU sanctions on Russian oil and gas required 'sooner or later'

President of the European Council Charles Michel stated on Wednesday that sanctions against Russian oil and gas would be required "sooner or later", as the EU continues to lean towards completely banning energy purchases from Moscow.

EU ambassadors will meet in Brussels on Wednesday to ink a fifth sanctions package, which proposes a total ban on Russian coal but falls short of prohibiting the import of Russian oil and gas.

Although Michel's comments were seemingly in line with the desire of several EU countries to take aim at Russian oil and gas, the EU will likely remain at a stalemate as long as Germany stays opposed to a ban.

Earlier in the week, German finance minister Christian Lindner hinted that a move on oil was under consideration but cautioned that "at the moment it's not possible to cut the gas supplies, so we have to differentiate with oil, coal, and gas at the moment".

While addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Michel stated that the EU would now be "toughening" its sanctions in order to keep "maximum pressure on the Kremlin".

"We are ready to move quickly with further coordinated robust sanctions," he added. "I think that measures on oil and even gas will also be needed sooner or later".

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also said the EU needed to put "more pressure on Russia and arm Ukraine more".

"We have to help them defend themselves," he said. "We have given Ukraine €1.0bn — it might seem a lot, but a billion euro is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us."