EU APPROVES ‘MOST FORCEFUL AND FAR-REACHING’ 10TH PACKAGE OF SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki speak to Polish soldiers next to the first Leopard 2 tanks delivered from Poland to Ukraine on February 24,

Sat 25 February 2023:

On the anniversary of Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has authorized a tenth round of sanctions against the country, according to EU officials.

The Swedish EU Council Presidency announced the new set of sanctions in Brussels on Friday night. They are intended to make financing the war more challenging as well as deprive Russia of technology and spare parts for its weapons used against Ukraine.

The package includes actions against organizations supporting Russia’s conflict, such as promoting propaganda in support of the invasion and supplying drones used by Moscow to strike Ukraine, as well as harsher export limits on dual-use goods.

“Together, the EU member states have imposed the most forceful and far-reaching sanctions ever to help Ukraine win the war,” the EU presidency announced on Twitter.

“The EU stands united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We will keep supporting Ukraine, for as long as it takes.”

– Targeted restricted measures against individuals and entities supporting the war, spreading propaganda or delivering drones used by Russia in the war

– Measures against Russian disinformation

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— Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU (@sweden2023eu) February 24, 2023

The measures are also intended to add more people to the blacklist, such as those who the West claims are propagandists for Russia, those who Kyiv accuses of sending Ukrainian children to Russia, and those who worked on the development of Iranian drones that were used in the front lines of the conflict.

According to the executive of the bloc, the package was also intended to cut off other Russian banks from the worldwide system SWIFT, including the private Alfa-Bank and the online bank Tinkoff, and to reduce trade between the EU and Russia by more than 10 billion euros ($10.5bn).

Two hours before the clock struck midnight on Friday, after Poland initially threw a spanner in the works, negotiators from EU member states managed to come to an agreement on the sanctions.

Poland’s PM @MorawieckiM
personally delivered 4 Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv today.

His Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal received the tanks together with Ukrainian soldiers trained in Poland.

Morawiecki told the soldiers that the tanks will help drive the Russians back pic.twitter.com/6Z3ZFAbrC6

— INDEPENDENT PRESS (@IpIndependent) February 25, 2023

All member states need to approve sanctions for them to be enacted, making negotiations among the 27 often tedious and lengthy.

“This is very bad optics. What was supposed to be key here is a message of solidarity with Ukraine on this special day,” said one diplomat involved in the confidential negotiations between the 27 EU countries in the bloc’s hub Brussels.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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