BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union ambassadors have agreed on a “strong and substantive” new set of sanctions as part of the ongoing response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the bloc’s Belgian presidency said Thursday.
“This package provides new targeted measures and maximizes the impact of existing sanctions by closing loopholes,” the presidency wrote on social media platform approve the measures as expected on Monday. .
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, whose team drafted the sanctions, said the package “will deny Russia access to key technologies. It will deprive Russia of further energy revenues. And tackle Putin’s shadow fleet and shadow banking network abroad.”
The measures will mainly target the import of Russian liquefied natural gas and make it more difficult to move. The EU estimates that about 4 billion to 6 billion cubic meters (141 billion to 212 billion cubic feet) of Russian LNG were shipped to third countries through EU ports last year.
Another hundred officials and ‘entities’ will be targeted with asset freezes and travel bans. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as well as dozens of lawmakers and several oligarchs, are among the more than 1,700 people already on the list.
The more than 400 entities currently affected include companies active in the military, aviation, shipbuilding and machinery sectors, the Wagner mercenary group, political parties and banks. In the EU, approximately 210 billion euros worth of Russian Central Bank assets have been frozen.
