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EU extends economic sanctions against Russia for additional 6 months

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EU extends economic sanctions against Russia for additional 6 months
The flags of the European Union and Ukraine outside the EU Parliament building in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 24, 2023. (Ksenia Kuleshova/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The EU Council announced on Jan. 29 the prolongation of economic sanctions against Russia, imposed due to its aggression against Ukraine, until July 31.

"These sanctions, first introduced in 2014 in response to Russia's actions destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, were significantly expanded since February 2022 in response to Russia's unprovoked, unjustified, and illegal military aggression against Ukraine," the Council's press service said.

The European bloc first adopted sanctions related to Russian aggression on July 31, 2014, after Moscow occupied Crimea and launched war in Ukraine's Donbas region. The EU has significantly scaled up its sanctions after the full-scale invasion, adopting 12 major sanctions packages since Feb. 24, 2022.

The EU approved its latest sanctions package in December 2023, with the 13th package reportedly already in the works and expected to be unveiled in February.

Sanctions against Moscow encompass a broad array of economic areas, including restrictions on trade, finance, technology and dual-use goods, industry, transport, and luxury goods.

They further include a ban on Russian seaborne crude oil and certain petroleum products, cutting off Russian banks from the SWIFT international banking system, and suspending Russian propaganda and disinformation channels within the bloc.

Brussels also sought to crack down on Russia's ability to circumvent existing sanctions via third-party countries.

Borrell says Central Asia must strengthen cooperation on Russian sanctions circumvention
“In order for these sanctions to be effective, we need full cooperation from our partners,” said the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell.
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Martin Fornusek

Senior News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

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