EU ministers meet tonight to discuss sanctions against Russia: 10 points

EU foreign ministers meet today to discuss sanctions against Russia as tension over the stand-off in Ukraine escalates. The UK has announced a first set of measures - on five banks and three individuals - and the US is expected to add to existing sanctions.

The European Union is inching closer to enforcing sanctions on Russian individuals and institutions - from politicians to financial organisations like banks - as part of the West's response to Russia recognising Donetsk and Luhansk - the two rebel regions in eastern Ukraine - as independent entities.

1. EU foreign ministers are meeting amid expectations they will target over 350 Russian lawmakers who voted to recognise the separatist regions, three banks financing Russian operations (military or otherwise) in separatist regions in Ukraine, and ban trade between there and its territories.
2. The proposed measures also aims "to target the ability of the Russian state and government to access the EU's capital and financial markets and services, to limit the financing of escalatory and aggressive policies" EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel said.
3. The EU has said it is ready to impose sanctions with "massive consequences". "We've got to ensure that whatever happens, Russia will feel the pain ... to make sure Russia has absolutely no incentive to go further," Irish EU affairs minister Thomas Byrne said.
4. However, any sanction by the EU has to be approved by all 27 member states and that could complicate matters, given that not all of them have the same relation to, or dependence on, Russia. There is also concern over the fallout of sanctions on the European economy, given energy and trade ties to Russia.
5. Germany has said it will halt the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which brings natural gas from Russia and is seen as an example of Europe's reliance on Russian energy supplies. Baltic and central European countries are in favour of tough sanctions while others, like Austria and Hungary, are leaning towards prefer more limited sanctions, news agency Reuters reported.
6. Norway has announced its support for sanctions against Russia. "The situation in Ukraine... is at a dramatic level," Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told journalists in Oslo, adding that Russia's recognition of the breakaway regions was a "turning point".
7. The United Kingdom has moved swiftly and slapped sanctions on five Russian banks and three billionaires, in what Prime Minister Boris Johnson called "the first barrage" of measures. These come into effect immediately. The UK will also sanction lawmakers who voted to recognise the separatist regions.
8. Poland has called for sanction to include measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Democrats in the US Senate last month unveiled such a bill - that included Putin in it sweep - but it has yet to bed passed. Russia has dismissed any sanction against Putin as being “politically self-destructive”.
9. The US and the EU already have some sanctions in place on Russia's energy and defence sectors, including against state-owned gas company Gazprom. President Joe Biden has already issued an order prohibiting investment in and financing to the separatist regions.
10. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has brushed off the threat of sanctions, saying, "We're used to it. We know that sanctions will be imposed anyway, in any case. With or without reason" and slamming the US, the EU and the UK for the "punishment of Russia".

A pro-Russian activist stands next to flags in a street, after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognising two Russian-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as independent entities, in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk, Ukraine February 21, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko (REUTERS)

With input from AFP, Reuters