BRUSSELS
The EU has imposed sanctions against 12 more Russian officials for their role in Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s breakaway Crimea region.
The 12 officials have been added to a list which already includes Russian diplomats facing travel bans and asset freezes, reports say.
The sanctions list includes the following officials close to President Vladimir Putin: Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin; Sergey Glazyev, an advisor to President Putin; the speaker of Russia’s Upper House of Parliament, Valentina Matviyenko; and chairman of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin.
Russia officially annexed Crimea from Ukraine on Friday, after an independence referendum on March 16 in which 96.7 percent of the region’s voters chose to join the Russian Federation.
The United States and other Western countries regard the March 16 referendum in Crimea as illegitimate.
President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy has warned that any steps taken by Russia to breach Ukraine’s sovereignty would have “far-reaching consequences”.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Friday said EU financial aid packages, used to help stabilize Ukraine’s economy, would reach the country in April or May.
Yatsenyuk said a previously estimated amount of 610 million euros of EU financial assistance to Ukraine will now be increased to 1.61 billion euros.
Remarking that Ukraine has lost hundreds of billions of dollars because of the tension in Crimea, Yatsenyuk said his country would “seek its rights in court”.
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