The EU will add 19 people including five Russians to its sanctions list over the conflict in Ukraine following a surge in fighting between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels, European sources said on Thursday.
Nine “entities” will also be targeted by the sanctions, which were agreed at an emergency meeting of Foreign Ministers from the 28-nation European Union in Brussels last week, several sources told AFP.
The new additions must be formally approved when the Foreign Ministers meet again on Monday. None of the 19 new figures targeted for travel bans and asset freezes is “top level”, the sources said, while only one of the entities is Russian.
The majority of those on the blacklist are likely to be either separatist leaders blamed for stoking the fighting in eastern Ukraine, or figures in Crimea, which Russia annexed in March 2014.
The crisis in Ukraine began in November 2013 when the then-president Viktor Yanukovych, under pressure from Moscow, refused to sign a deal deepening ties with the European Union, sparking protests which led to his overthrow.
‘19 civilians and troops killed in Ukraine in 24 hrs’
Kiev: Fourteen civilians and five Government soldiers have been killed in fighting in east Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Government and rebel officials said on Thursday. Pro-Russian separatists said shelling killed eight residents and wounded 33 more around their stronghold Donetsk.
Across the lines, a local Ukrainian official said six civilians died in five frontline towns in Government-held territory and a further 12 were injured. Ukraine’s military said that five of its soldiers were killed and 29 wounded as its forces came under artillery bombardment 93 times over the past day.