The EU and Germany have issued new warnings to Russia over the situation in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the head of the European Union’s executive warned Russia that if it invades neighboring Ukraine, the EU will retaliate with a slew of new penalties.

Beyond escalating and expanding existing sanctions, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned the EU may take “unique actions with major repercussions for Russia.”

On the eve of an EU summit where the military standoff will be a significant item on the agenda, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a special meeting on Wednesday.

Because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014 and subsequent measures that the West views as increasingly hostile, Von der Leyen informed the European Parliament that economic sanctions targeting Russia’s finance, energy, and industries are already in place.

“Any infringement of territorial integrity will have its price — a high price,” Scholz, Germany’s next chancellor, told the German parliament’s lower chamber, “and we will speak with one voice on this together with our European friends and our trans-Atlantic allies.”

Adding to the tense relationship with Moscow, Germany chose to expel two Russian ambassadors on Wednesday after a court found Moscow responsible for the murder of a Chechen man in Berlin two years ago.

Russia has pushed 70,000 troops toward Ukraine’s border, according to US intelligence officials, and is preparing for an attack early next year. Moscow denies any intention of attacking Ukraine and dismisses Western fears as a propaganda campaign.

The 27 states promise that “any further military aggression against Ukraine would have significant consequences and severe cost in response,” according to draft conclusions reviewed by The Associated Press before of Thursday’s EU leaders’ conference.

Any sanctions package would be coordinated by the EU, the US, and the UK. The G7 nations have also been harsh in their criticism of Russia.

None have been specific about the nature of the increased sanctions, arguing that keeping it under wraps gives them a diplomatic advantage because, according to several officials, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be unaware of the consequences of an invasion until he sends troops across the border.

It’s also uncertain whether Germany will halt approval of the Russian-built Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which may be a key component of any sanctions package.

While some countries feel an attack is inevitable, others, such as France and Germany, believe diplomacy still has time to work. Scholz called for a meeting to discuss the tensions between Ukraine and Russia.

“We must be prepared to try to reach an agreement, to break out of the cycle of escalation on a regular basis,” Scholz told German legislators on Wednesday.

France and Germany pushed Russia and Ukraine to the bargaining table in 2015, resulting in a peace agreement that helped cease large-scale hostilities in eastern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces had been fighting Russia-backed separatists since 2014. The violence that claimed the lives of 14,000 people continues to rage.

More talks, Scholz said, “must not be misconstrued as a new German ‘Ostpolitik,'” referring to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s early 1970s détente policy with the communist Eastern bloc.

He claims that “only a European ‘Ostpolitik’ in a united Europe” can be based on international law and order norms, which Russia agreed to but violated with the annexation of Crimea.

Efforts to find a political solution to Ukraine’s separatist crisis have failed. Along the tense line of contact, sporadic skirmishes persist. Russia has thus far refused to meet with France and Germany to discuss the issue.