The European Union has imposed fresh sanctions against Russia by adding 19 individuals and nine entities to the asset freeze list and accuses them of “undermining or threatening” Ukraine’s independence.
The new list was published on the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJEC) at 0830 GMT on Monday and places restrictive measures on the newly sanctioned individuals which include three top brass Russian military officials: Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, the first deputy defense minister, Army General Arkady Bakhin and the head of the Operation Directorate of General Staff, Lieutenant General Andrey Kartapolov.
Two members of the Russian lower house of parliament, the State Duma, singer Iosif Kobzon and Valery Rashkin, who heads the Russian Communist Party branch in Moscow, are among those hit with the new bans. The remaining people are officials and field commanders of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine. The latest blacklist came into force at the time of publication.
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The restrictive measures include the freezing of the individuals’ assets in European Union countries and an EU-wide travel ban.
Press TV report:
The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned as “inconsistent and illogical” the latest European Union (EU) sanctions against Moscow over Ukraine’s crisis, vowing to respond accordingly.
“We note how inconsistent and illogical it is that every time that a hope appears of a solution to the crisis inside Ukraine, the European Union rushes to bring in new anti-Russian restrictions,” read the statement issued by Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday.
“Such decisions … will be followed by an appropriate response,” the statement added.
The statement also said the recent sanctions “go against common sense” and “look particularly ridiculous” after Germany and France, two EU member states, mediated a ceasefire deal between Kiev and pro-Russia forces in eastern Ukraine.
