Former EU chief shames Germany, Hungary, and Italy for blocking the harshest sanctions on Russia

• Donald Tusk blamed three EU countries for the bloc's muted response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
• He said Italy, Hungary and Germany "disgraced themselves" by holding the EU back.

A former EU chief lambasted three European governments for preventing the bloc from imposing the toughest possible measures on Russia as its forces advance on Ukraine.

Early Friday, Donald Tusk tweeted that Hungary, Italy and Germany had "disgraced themselves" over their wish to hold some sanctions in reserve.

Tusk, who leads the largest political alliance in the European Parliament, said those countries were dealing in "pretended" sanctions. He tweeted:

"In this war everything is real: Putin's madness and cruelty, Ukrainian victims, bombs falling on Kyiv. Only your sanctions are pretended.

"Those EU governments, which blocked tough decisions (i.a. Germany, Hungary, Italy) have disgraced themselves."

As the former President of the European Council, and also the former Prime Minister of Poland, Tusk has an outsize influence on the bloc.

Thursday's new raft of EU sanctions stopped short of some measures, such as excluding Russia from the SWIFT banking system, or blacklisting President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, as the FT reported.

Hungary, Italy, Germany and Cyprus were among the countries recommending a softer approach, the paper reported.

EU sanctions can only be agreed unanimously.

Meanwhile, some G7 countries have urged harsher actions, such as the UK which wants Russia ejected from SWIFT, as the BBC reported.

President Joe Biden, however, is also hesitant to exclude Russia from the system, suggesting his new raft of sanctions are tougher anyway, the Associated Press reported.