EU unveils sanctions amid US warnings of imminent Russian invasion

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff as part of its first round of sanctions against Russia. Amid warnings from the United States that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could start imminently, EU leaders will meet for an emergency summit on Thursday evening to forge a joint response. Among 27 named people and entities on the EU’s sanctions list are the defence minister and the heads of Russia’s navy, army and air force.

It also places asset freezes and travel bans on two deputy prime ministers as well as Anton Vaino, chief of staff in Mr Putin’s presidential executive office.

The EU says the names on the blacklist all had key roles in the “threat to the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.

Joining those on the sanctions list are television news anchor Vladimir Solovyov and Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-funded television channel RT, who are described as leading “propagandists” engaged in promoting a “positive attitude to . . . the actions of separatists in Donbas”.

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Tougher sanctions

In addition, the sanctions will hit a notorious St Petersburg “troll factory” and three banks with operations in the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist-held territories. Finally, the Russian government will be further restricted in its ability to raise money on EU financial markets.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said: “If there is any further military action against Ukraine, there will be a massive and robust second package that is coming.”

European Council president Charles Michel said he had called the summit of EU leaders to discuss “how we deal with Russia”. “The use of force and coercion to change borders has no place in the 21st century,” he said in a letter to EU leaders.

The 27 national leaders will debate how far sanctions could go when they meet for discussions that will start at 8pm Brussels time and are expected to run late into the night.

Both Ukraine and EU member states that border Russia have called for the imposition of even tougher sanctions.

“Now the pressure needs to step up to stop Putin. Hit his economy and cronies. Hit more. Hit hard. Hit now,” appealed Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Preparations for major economic retaliation have co-ordinated with the US and UK for weeks as Russian troops encircled Ukraine.

Nervous

More hard-hitting options could include exclusion from the financial markets and the ability to trade in euro or dollars, and cutting off Russia’s access to crucial electronic components like microchips, potentially in co-ordination with Asian manufacturing states.

Most contentious among of all are sanctions that would affect Russian energy imports, which make up a significant proportion of EU gas supplies, with political leaders nervous of steps that could cause shortages and send prices even higher.

There is also a lingering question over what actions by Russia constitute an invasion, with some countries feeling that the full sweep of sanctions should be held back as leverage for a scenario in which Russian forces push the front line forward into territory currently held by Kyiv.