European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed on Wednesday a new package of Russia sanctions, designed "to make the Kremlin pay" for escalating the conflict in Ukraine with what she called "sham" votes in occupied territory.
"We do not accept the sham referenda and any kind of annexation in Ukraine, and we are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation," she told reporters in Brussels.
The proposed eighth sanctions package includes further import bans on Russian products, expected to deprive Moscow of an additional 7 billion euros ($6.7 billion) in revenues, and more export bans on key technology used for the military such as aviation items, electronic components and specific chemical substances, von der Leyen announced.
Beyond this, the sanctions package will lay the legal basis for an oil price cap and ban EU citizens from sitting on governing bodies of Russian state-owned companies, she said.
($1 = 1.0417 euros)
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and Marine Strauss; Editing by John Chalmers and Philip Blenkinsop)
