PARIS (Reuters) – European Union countries agreed on Tuesday to sanction 27 Russian representatives, elected officials and entities for their role in violating Ukraine’s integrity and to target Russia’s ability to access export markets. European capital and financial services.
This announcement, made by the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, comes the day after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to recognize the independence of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and to deploy soldiers there in in what Moscow has described as a “peacekeeping” operation.
The head of the Kremlin, who obtained the green light from Russian senators during the day to send troops to the Donbass, declared that the Minsk agreements providing for a truce in the region no longer existed, saying that he held Kiev responsible .
Westerners fear that this is the prelude to a major Russian offensive in Ukraine, despite their warnings to Moscow. They repeated that Russia would be hit with sanctions on an unprecedented scale in the event of an invasion of Ukraine.
Several European countries took salvoes of sanctions against Russia on Tuesday following the announcements of Vladimir Putin. Germany has thus decided to suspend the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline linking it to Russia.
EU foreign ministers have chosen not to directly sanction Vladimir Putin, Josep Borrell said after a Paris meeting.
Speaking at a press conference alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, he said the sanctions targeted Russian decision-makers and banks funding operations in Ukraine.
Jean-Yves Le Drian also indicated that the interview scheduled for Friday with his Russian counterpart Sergue Lavrov would not ultimately take place.
In Moscow, the spokeswoman for the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, quoted by the Tass press agency, denounced the new European sanctions as “illegitimate”.
These sanctions, approved unanimously by the member countries of the community block, constitute only a part of the reaction of the Twenty-Seven vis-a-vis Russia, indicated Josep Borrell.
Among the targets of the sanctions are the elected members of the Duma who voted in favor of the recognition of the independence of the two separatist regions of eastern Ukraine. Their assets in the EU are frozen and they are hit with an EU visa ban.
Josep Borrell stressed the “determination” of the EU to respond to Moscow’s recognition of the independence of the regions of Louhansk and Donetsk, an “act of extreme gravity”.
He also welcomed Germany’s decision to suspend Nord Stream 2 certification.
(Report Bertrand Boucey and Jean Terzian, with John Chalmers, Sabine Siebold and Robin Emmott Brussels, Polina Devitt Moscow, written by Jean Terzian)