BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers agreed in principle on Monday to add about 200 Russian people and groups to a sanctions list, even if a whole ninth package of sanctions wasn’t approved yet, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said.
“What we have already approved is the individual sanctions … to about 200 individuals and entities,” he told a news conference.
“This is approved, it is going to hit hard the Russian defence sector and the Russian military. It is going to hit also the political masters of the Russian government, in the Duma, in the Federation Council and in the judiciary. We are targeting those responsible for looting the Ukrainian grain, and for the deportation of Ukrainian people and in particular children.”
While diplomats said adding new names to the sanctions list had not been difficult to agree on, the bloc’s foreign ministers could not yet adopt the full package of new sanctions proposed by the European Commission.
Borrell said there had been disagreement on some of the content and its possible impact, but did not go into details.
He said he hoped it could be approved later this week.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Editing by Ingrid Melander)
