US, EU must resolve to maintain sanctions pressure on Russia for long haul: Biden

Using sanctions to maintain and increase economic pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin for months to come will be key to ending the Ukraine war, US President Joe Biden said March 24.

Biden said during a Brussels press conference that the top priority of his trip was to urge his European counterparts to "sustain what we're doing, not just next month and the following month, but for the remainder of this year."

"If you're Putin and you think that Europe is going to crack in a month, or six weeks, or two months, they can take anything for a month," he said. "We have to demonstrate, we have to stay fully, totally, thoroughly united."

The US announced a fresh round of sanctions on Russia March 24, prohibiting gold-related transactions with the central bank and tightening penalties on Putin's inner circle, including Gunvor co-founder Gennady Timchenko.

The Treasury Department said new restrictions on gold-related trades were aimed at blocking attempts to circumvent US sanctions through the use of gold or other precious metals.

Biden said he and European leaders agreed that there was a need for a framework for sanctions enforcement but they had yet to sort out the details. He said both NATO and the EU needed systems to look at "who has violated any of the sanctions and where and when and how."