BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union leaders will talk about new, powerful sanctions on Russia at an emergency assembly later on Thursday in response to its “barbaric attack” on Ukraine, the 27-nation bloc’s officers stated.
Russian forces fired missiles at a number of cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday, officers and media stated, after President Vladimir Putin authorised what he referred to as a particular army operation within the east.
“President Putin is accountable for bringing warfare again to Europe,” European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen stated, including that the EU would maintain him “accountable for that.”
“With this bundle, we’ll goal strategic sectors of the Russian financial system by blocking their entry to key applied sciences and markets,” she stated in an emergency assertion. “We will weaken Russia’s financial base and its capability to modernise.”
“In addition, we’ll freeze Russian belongings within the EU and cease the entry of Russian banks to the European monetary market.”
The EU accredited a primary spherical of sanctions on Wednesday, together with blacklisting Russian politicians and curbing commerce between the EU and two breakaway areas of jap Ukraine whose independence Putin has recognised.
The new measures to be mentioned at a night summit of nationwide EU leaders beginning at 1900 GMT will probably be “the harshest bundle of sanctions now we have ever carried out,” the bloc’s international coverage chief Josep Borrell stated.
“This is among the many darkest hours for Europe because the finish of World War 2… Russia’s management will face unprecedented isolation.”
The EU may also put together a new support bundle for Ukraine, he added.
Shortly after Putin spoke in a televised deal with on Russian state TV, explosions may very well be heard within the pre-dawn quiet of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Gunfire rattled close to the capital’s essential airport, the Interfax information company stated, and sirens have been heard over town.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Marine Strauss, Gabriela Baczynska; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by John Chalmers)
