The EU approved a new round of sanctions over Russia’s war in Ukraine late on Friday, only just meeting a self-imposed deadline for a 10th sanctions package to mark the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion, the bloc’s Swedish presidency announced.
The full details of the package, which contains “targeted restricted measures against individuals and entities supporting the war, spreading propaganda or delivering drones used by Russia in the war,” will be published in the European Union’s official gazette.
One EU diplomat told AFP that 120 individuals and entities, and three more Russian banks, has been included.
The proposed package promised to sanction industrial goods worth 11 billion euros ($12 billion) and target drone producers in Iran whose warhead-armed unmanned aerial vehicles Moscow has been using to attack civilian infrastructure targets in Ukraine.
The EU’s measures followed further sanctions announced earlier on Friday by both the United States and the United Kingdom and came in the wake of a G7 statement that warned of penalties for any country abetting Russia in its war.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the new sanctions would include electronics and machine parts that can be used in Russian drones, missiles, helicopters and other weapons systems.
The EU has already imposed nine waves of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow, hitting key Russian exports such as oil in a bid to cut off funding for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest.
Several EU diplomats told AFP that Poland had held up the adoption of the latest package as Warsaw had viewed them as insufficient, with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki describing them as “too soft, too weak” during a visit to Kyiv on Friday.
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