Brussels – The European Union will mark the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the approval of the 13th package of sanctions on Moscow. Three days after Feb. 24, the ambassadors of the EU gave the green light to apply restrictive measures to nearly 200 individuals and entities, adding to the more than 2,000 individuals close to the Kremlin already sanctioned in two years of war.
The Council will formally adopt the sanctions package by written procedure by the desired symbolic date of Feb. 24. “One of the most comprehensive” approved so far, the Belgian EU presidency stressed in making the announcement. The package is expected to focus on combating the circumvention of restrictive measures—in continuity with the twelfth—and on the Kremlin’s supply networks of advanced technology and military equipment.
In particular, Brussels wants to target companies that supply Moscow with components for building drones, which are then used in bombing Ukrainian cities. “We must continue to reduce Putin’s war machine. With 2,000 names in total, we keep the pressure on the Kremlin high.
We are also further cutting Russia’s access to drones,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen commented in a post on X.
In addition to several Russian companies, the EU would also blacklist companies from Turkey and North Korea. Most importantly, the new sanctions will also reportedly target, for the first time, three Chinese companies that allegedly supplied military technology to Moscow. “Russia is paying for its actions. The thirteenth sanctions package agreed today by the EU will further reduce the production of the Kremlin’s arsenal and fragment its war chest,” cheered the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
