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EU sanctions nine people over ‘illegal’ Ukraine polls
BRUSSELS, Dec 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – EU states have agreed to sanction nine
people over recent “illegal” elections in Russian-backed breakaway eastern
Ukraine, officials told AFP Friday, as tensions between Moscow and Kiev run
high over their recent sea clash.
Foreign ministers will use a meeting in Brussels on Monday to formally
approve travel bans and asset freezes on nine Ukrainians involved in the
polls in the Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics” last month, which the
US blasted as a “sham” and the EU has called “illegal and illegitimate”.
The move comes as Kiev steps up calls for international action against
Russia after it seized three Ukrainian navy ships and 24 sailors in the Sea
of Azov, but Monday’s gathering of EU foreign ministers will not adopt
sanctions over the incident, as countries are wary of escalating a
complicated situation further.
An EU official said a meeting on Wednesday had agreed “the legal acts for
new listings under the restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining
or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of
Ukraine”.
Diplomats confirmed nine people, all Ukrainian, would be sanctioned,
meaning they will be banned from travelling to or through EU countries and
any assets they hold in the bloc will be frozen.
The November polls returned pro-Moscow separatist leaders to power in the
two breakaway Ukrainian regions, ballots that Kiev said were simply a way for
the Kremlin to cement its grip on the disputed region.
The so-called republics were declared in 2014, after Russia annexed Crimea
and supported the outbreak of an anti-Kiev insurgency in other parts of
eastern Ukraine.
The EU has a range of sanctions in place related to the annexation of
Crimea and the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has claimed more
than 10,000 lives, but they are treading carefully over the Azov Sea clash.
The confrontation on November 25 was the first open military incident
between Kiev and Moscow since 2014 and on Thursday Ukraine’s Foreign Minister
Pavlo Klimkin warned that Russia’s belligerence was a “major threat to
European security”.
But the bloc’s diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini struck a cautionary
note, urging the “greatest moderation to proceed toward a de-escalation”.
Klimkin will meet EU foreign ministers on Monday to press his call for more
action against Russia, but diplomats say he is unlikely to receive anything
more concrete than statements of support.
BSS/AFP/RY/1820 hrs