The Council of the European Union (EU) running the Kremlin against Ukrainian territory. In this way, the restrictive measures against specific sectors of the Russian economy will be valid until July 31, exclusively by the Council in a statement.
These sanctions, first sent in 2014 in response to Russia’s destabilizing actions in eastern Ukraine with the annexation of Crimea, have been significantly widened since February 2022 in light of Moscow’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against its neighbour.
Currently, it consists of a broad spectrum of sectoral measures, including restrictions on trade, finance, technology and dual-use goods, industry, transport and luxury items.
They also cover a ban on importing or transferring seaborne crude oil and certain oil products from Russia to the EU, the elimination of the use of the Kremlin-backed mid-payment system.
Specifically, in the nine rounds approved since the start of the invasion that began on February 24, the reserves of the Russian Central Bank in the EU have been frozen and ten banking entities have been disconnected from Swift, including Sberbank, the mayor bank of the country
Community airspace has also been closed to Russian companies, as well as seaports to their shipping companies, among economic measures that include an embargo on exports of dual-use goods.
Brussels has already started contacts with European governments to prepare the tenth package of sanctions, with Poland and the Baltic countries calling for an embargo on gas and diamond imports.
Apart from the prolonged economic sanctions today, the EU applies different types of restrictive measures in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Among them, the restrictions on economic relations with the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, illegally annexed by Moscow, as well as with the areas not controlled by the Government of the Donetsk and Lugansk provinces, in the east of the country.
It also keeps in place individual sanctions (asset freezes and travel restrictions) against a wide range of individuals and entities, and diplomatic measures. Individual sanctions are valid until March 15, but Hungary has requested nine people be removed from the blacklist, according to diplomatic sources, while the Council’s legal services are studying whether it is correct that eleven names appear among those sanctioned.
“In the face of Russia’s war of aggression, the EU stands resolutely with Ukraine and its people, and fully supports Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders,” the Council of the Union stressed.
