THE EU HAS agreed a new round of sanctions against Russia on the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The move was announced tonight via Twitter by the Swedish EU presidency.

It’s one year since Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine.

Today, the EU approved the 10th package of Russian sanctions.

The package includes e.g.:

- Tighter export restrictions regarding dual-use and technology

(1/3)

— Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU (@sweden2023eu) February 24, 2023

“Together, the EU Member States have imposed the most forceful and far-reaching sanctions ever to help Ukraine win the war,” said the presidency.

“The EU stands united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We will keep supporting Ukraine, for as long as it takes.”

The package – the 10th the EU has imposed since Russia’s 24 February, 2022 invasion – contains “targeted restricted measures against individuals and entities supporting the war, spreading propaganda or delivering drones used by Russia in the war”.

One EU diplomat told AFP that 120 individuals and entities, and three more Russian banks, were listed.

The EU’s measures echoed sanctions announced earlier today by the United States and by Britain, and came in the wake of a G7 statement that warned of penalties for any country abetting Russia in its war.

Another EU diplomat said the agreement on sanctions held “no compromise” to a proposal put forward to member states by the European Commission.

That proposed package promised to cut off industrial goods worth €11 billion to Russia and target drone producers in Iran whose unmanned aircraft containing warheads Moscow has been using to attack Ukrainian targets.

Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen had said the goods put under sanctions for Russia would include electronics and machine parts that can be used in Russian drones, missiles, helicopters and other weapons systems.

She had said that seven Iranian entities providing dual-use products to Russia were also included in the commission sanctions proposal.

The EU has already imposed nine waves of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow, hitting key Russian exports like oil in a bid to cut Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest.

Several EU diplomats had told AFP that complaints from Poland had slowed down agreement on the latest sanctions because Warsaw had viewed them as insufficient.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said today, as he visited Kyiv before the EU sanctions agreement was announced, that the proposals from Brussels were “too soft, too weak”.

- © AFP 2023