BERLIN—French President Emmanuel Macron’s call Monday for sanctions banning imports of Russian oil and coal into the European Union following the weekend’s allegations of atrocities in Ukraine is set to trigger the most divisive intra-EU clash yet over how to respond to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

European governments, some of them divided internally on the issue, have so far tiptoed around energy imports, with proponents of some form of energy ban—including Poland, the Baltic States, Sweden and the Netherlands—accepting that opposition in other capitals remained too strong.