The European Union is to close its airspace to Russian airlines, fund the supply of weapons to Ukraine and ban pro-Kremlin media outlets following Russia's invasion of its neighbour.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said the 27-nation bloc would, for the first time ever, "finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack”.
She added: "We are shutting down the EU airspace for Russians. We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian-registered or Russian-controlled aircraft. These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU."
Ms von der Leyen said the EU will also ban what she described as "the Kremlin's media machine."
"The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war and to sow division in our union," she said.
She announced that the EU will also target Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko for supporting Russia’s widespread military campaign in Ukraine.
"We will hit Lukashenko’s regime with a new package of sanctions," she said.
On Saturday (February 26) the US, European Union and UK agreed to block "selected" Russian banks from the Swift global financial messaging system in retaliation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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