Josep Borrell- Photo © European Union 2022
(LUXEMBOURG) – The EU Council gave formal approval Friday to a new package of sanctions against Russia, for its continuing war of aggression against Ukraine and reported atrocities committed by Russian armed forces.
The package includes a ban on imports from Russia of crude oil and refined petroleum products; a SWIFT ban for an additional three Russian and one Belarusian banks; and suspension of broadcasting in the EU for three more Russian state-owned outlets.
A temporary exception is provided for imports of crude oil by pipeline into those EU member states that, due to their geographical situation, suffer from a specific dependence on Russian supplies and have no viable alternative options.
The EU also adopted sanctions against an additional 65 individuals and 18 entities. These include individuals responsible for the atrocities committed in Bucha and Mariupol.
“There can be no impunity for war crimes,” said the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell: “We are adding today to our sanctions lists those who are responsible for enabling this unjustified war and the war crimes committed in Bucha and Mariupol, adding more people from the military and economic elites and those with close ties with President Putin supporting his illegitimate aggression against the Ukrainian people.”
The 65 listed individuals include the military staff that led the actions of those units of the Russian army that killed, raped, and tortured civilians in Ukraine in Bucha, including Colonel Azatbek Omurbekov, who was nicknamed the ‘Butcher of Bucha’. The list also includes those responsible for the inhuman siege of the city of Mariupol, including Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, nicknamed the ‘Butcher of Mariupol’, and those who participated in the creation of the so-called Committee of Salvation for Peace and Order in March 2022 – an organ for collaboration with the Russian occupation in Kherson Oblast. Lastly, the EU is imposing sanctions on politicians, propagandists, leading businesspersons and family members of already sanctioned individuals. The former gymnast and State Duma member Alina Kabaeva is also included in the list as a close associate of President Vladimir Putin.
The 18 sanctioned entities include a variety of companies supporting, directly or indirectly, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Russian Federation, including Russia’s largest securities depository, the National Settlement Depository.
