Luxembourg, Oct 13. (dpa/GNA) – The EU has agreed to impose new sanctions on a record number of supporters of Russia’s war effort, targeting nearly 1,600 individuals, companies and other organizations, foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.
The measures agreed by EU foreign ministers at their meeting in Luxembourg, were “the single largest expansion of our sanctions list since Russia started its war,” she wrote on X. “More than half are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles,” she said. They are also linked to, for example, drone manufacturers and shipyards that maintain submarines. “We are making it significantly harder, slower and more expensive for Russia to produce the weapons it uses to kill Ukrainians,” she wrote.
The sanctions include the freezing of assets and a ban on providing funds or other economic resources. EU entry bans are also being imposed on individuals.
German Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, described the measures as an “unprecedented sanctions blow” to President Vladimir Putin’s war economy. “We are making it harder for Putin to continue his war of aggression in violation of international law, and his cynical attempt to wear down Ukraine’s civilian population through murderous bombing campaigns,” Wadephul said in a statement on Monday.
Sanctions imposed so far had deprived Russia of €1 trillion ($1.12 trillion), Kallas said. Measures targeting Russia’s shadow fleet, which was being used to circumvent sanctions, were also making it considerably more difficult for the country to finance the war, she said.
The top EU diplomat also said the sanctions stood in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s controversial diesel deal with Russian President Putin.
She and other leading European politicians, had sharply criticized the deal at the weekend. In addition to the sanctions against Russia’s military-industrial complex, the foreign ministers also agreed on Monday in Luxembourg to impose punitive measures against several dozen individuals responsible for organizing elections in the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine.
EU officials have previously said, neither the elections held on Ukrainian territory nor their results, would ever be recognized.
GNA