EU extends economic sanctions against Russia for six months

The leaders of 27 EU countries at the summit in Brussels unanimously decided to extend economic sectoral sanctions against RUSSIA for six months. This was stated on Friday night at a press conference following the summit, the HEAD of the European Council, Charles Michel.

"The leaders of the 27 EU countries have unanimously decided to extend economic sanctions against Russia. We call on Russia to fulfill its part of the deal and fulfill the MINSK agreements," Michel said. He also announced that in the event of aggression against Ukraine, Russia would face "large-scale consequences and a high price of this aggression." Neither he nor the earlier head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, could give a concrete answer to the question of what exactly the EU is going to do.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the conflict in the Donbass is an intra-Ukrainian one, and Russia , along with the OSCE, France and Germany, only acts as a mediator in its settlement within the framework of the Minsk agreements.

Earlier, a TASS source in the delegation of one of the European countries on the sidelines of the meeting of EU leaders in Brussels said that sectoral sanctions would be extended again for 6 months, until July 31. According to the diplomat, in the coming weeks, Brussels will formally issue a decision to extend the sanctions, which will then be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force.

In 2014, the European Union imposed sanctions on the Russian Federation in connection with the events in Ukraine and the reunification of Crimea with Russia. Restrictive measures have been repeatedly expanded and extended. Negotiations on a visa-free regime and a new basic cooperation agreement were suspended, a ban on entry into the EU countries for officials from the Russian Federation was introduced and their assets were frozen. Restrictive measures of a commercial, financial and military nature were also introduced. In response, Russia imposed a ban on the import of a number of food products from the EU countries.