BRUSSELS: The European Union (EU) on Friday approved a new round of sanctions against Russia, including banning drone exports to the country, as the bloc strives to maintain a united front and keep up financial pressure on Moscow over the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
Friday’s package is the ninth round of such financial punishments against Moscow aimed at limiting the Kremlin’s revenues by banning transactions, freezing the assets of individuals and cutting Russia off from European markets. The most potent of these measures — a near-total embargo on the import of Russian oil — went into effect this month.
The EU’s 27 member countries agreed Friday to ban exports of drone components to Russia and other countries, such as Iran, which has been accused of supplying them to Moscow for use in Ukraine. The bloc had already adopted two rounds of sanctions against individuals and entities in Iran for providing drones that Russia has used to attack Ukraine’s civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Friday’s package also includes cutting off three Russian banks from access to EU markets, as well as restricting the export from the bloc to Russia of certain dual-use goods — products that can be used for civilian and for military purposes — such as chemicals, nerve agents and tech goods.
At least 190 individuals and entities were added to the sanctions list, meaning that their assets in the bloc will be frozen and that the individuals will be subject to an EU travel ban.
Members of the Russian parliament who voted in favour of annexing four Ukrainian provinces in October and members of the Russian armed forces who were involved in orchestrating missile strikes against civilians were added to the list. Other new additions included:
- Several officials involved in forcibly transporting Ukrainian children to Russia
- Roskomnadzor, the Russian internet regulator, which has been a critical part of the country’s surveillance and censorship apparatus
- Prominent figures in Russian culture and media, including television presenters Boris Korchevnikov and Marina Evgenievna Kim, whom the European Council accused of distributing Russian propaganda
- Two daughters and a cousin of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya who is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin
- A Russian deputy prime minister, Viktoria Abramchenko, who oversaw efforts to divert grain from Ukraine, according to the European Council
- Russia’s minister of education, Sergey Kravtsov, under whose guidance the European Council said schools in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine have been “forced to switch over to the Russian curriculum, use educational materials from Russia and to erase Ukrainian elements from the curriculum.”
- The Russian Imperial Movement, an ultranationalist and white supremacist group that is “actively fighting in Ukraine on behalf of the Russian government,” according to the European Council, as well as the group’s founder, Stanislav Vorobyev.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
