European Union Finance Ministers Agree To Slam Russia With Additional Sanctions

As the crisis in Ukraine officially entered its seventh month, the European Union foreign ministers have decided to impose new sanctions on Russia. The bloc, comprising 27 foreign ministers, also announced at the United Nations General Assembly in New York that they will be increasing the supply of weapons to Ukraine following Vladimir Putin’s decision to initiate partial military mobilization in Russia.

After the meeting between the foreign ministers, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell criticized Putin’s escalation of the Ukraine crisis and said that the EU will not back down in this situation.

“It’s clear that Putin is trying to destroy Ukraine,” Borrell told reporters according to Reuters.

Borrell met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and after the official briefing, the bloc decided to prepare another set of sanctions that will target “more relevant sectors of the Russian economy and continue targeting people responsible for the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

When it comes to the weapons supply, the EU did not provide a concrete figure but it is expected that the countries will look to boost Ukrainian forces as they look to regain lost land. In the past few weeks, the resistance forces have successfully recaptured a number of cities in Kharkiv and Luhansk.

However, the one topic on which the EU foreign ministers disagreed was the sanctions on energy imports as the continent is currently going through a massive energy supply crisis. While there were several countries who were in favour of it, Hungary completely dismissed the idea of a complete ban.

Meanwhile, thousands of people who were protesting and denouncing the partial mobilization of civilians in Russia have been detained by security forces on Wednesday, a rights group said, hours after President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia’s first military draft since the second world war.