EU Widens Sanctions To Pro-Russian Separatists In Ukraine

Sanctions related to the Russian role in Ukraine were widened to encompass another 13 individuals and five organizations at a meeting of European Union ambassadors Thursday. The 28-member EU issued travel bans on Ukrainian pro-Russian separatists and will freeze assets of the organizations because to their “involvement in action undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” Reuters reported.

The names of the sanctioned are likely to be published in the EU’s official journal Saturday and probably will include political groups rather than companies. The total numbers of sanctioned individuals and organizations are now 119 and 23, in that order.

Ambassadors at the meeting also discussed a so-called enhanced ban on any kind of investment in Crimea, which reflects the EU’s refusal to acknowledge Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. The ban was first discussed in July, but has yet to be ratified.

However, the EU stopped short of imposing additional sanctions on Russia itself, fearing a diplomatic spat over energy supplies coming out of the country.

EU leaders had been calling for an increase on sanctions after pro-Russian separatists elected new leaders in eastern Ukraine Nov. 2, an election Kiev and the West have since called a “farce.”