Smoke rises from the Luhansk power station in Shchastia, eastern Ukraine, after it was heavily bombed. Photo / Tyler Hicks, The New York Times
Smoke rises from the Luhansk power station in Shchastia, eastern Ukraine, after it was heavily bombed. Photo / Tyler Hicks, The New York Times
Prominent Russian officials from President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, as well as high-profile Russians from the media world, are the targets of European Union sanctions, details of which are expected to be made public tomorrow.
The list, which officials said had been finalised by EU ambassadors and was obtained byThe New York Times, was in the process of going through the bloc's legal service before being published and officially entering into force. It includes Russia's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and Anton Vaino, Putin's chief of staff.
Mourners at the funeral of Ukrainian Army Captain Anton Sidorov in Kyiv on February 22, 2022. Sidorov was killed by shelling in eastern Ukraine. Photo / Brendan Hoffman, The New York Times
EU officials said the sanctions were a first step toward punishing those involved in the recognition of the so-called republics of Donetsk and Luhansk on Monday (Tuesday NZT), which the bloc regards as a violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity. They promised heavier penalties if Russia escalates its hostilities in Ukraine into a full-blown invasion.
Josep Borrell Fontelles, the bloc's foreign policy chief, on Tuesday wrote a caustic tweet about how the sanctions would affect some Russian elites. "No more: Shopping in Milano Partying in SaintTropez Diamonds in Antwerp," he wrote. "This is a first step." The tweet was later deleted.
It is unclear whether the final roster of targeted individuals could change before taking effect, but the list appears to have been compiled in coordination with US officials who were drawing up their own set of sanctions.
Two more prominent individuals on the list were Maria Zakharova, the director of the foreign ministry's Information and Press Department, who is the ministry's spokesperson; and Margarita Simonyan, who leads the television network RT.
Parents wave to their children after they board the early-morning train from Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine to Kyiv on February 22, 2022. Photo / Lynsey Addario, The New York Times
The top Russian military leadership and senior executives with state-owned VTB bank, which itself was not listed, featured in the sanctions package, as did a number of other media personalities that the EU regards as "propagandists".
Yevgeny Prigozhin — a Russian businessman with close links to Putin who owns, among other things, the mercenary group Wagner — was included on the EU sanctions list alongside several members of his family.
The sanctions mean that the individuals will face travel bans to the EU, as well as asset freezes — although the asset freezes could be tricky to implement, given the willingness of European banking systems to conceal Russian wealth in complex ownership structures.
Russian howitzers are loaded onto train cars at a station outside Taganrog, Russia, near the border with Ukraine, on February 22, 2022. Photo / The New York Times
The sanctions package, which runs several hundred pages long, also includes bans on the import of dozens of goods and services, as well as an effective ban on Russia raising funds in European capital markets through short- and long-term bonds.
It comes as Ukraine braces for all-out conflict, with officials preparing to declare a 30-day state of emergency and mobilising military reservists.
"Our army is ready" to defend against an attack by Russian forces, said Oleksiy Danilov, the head of Ukraine's national security and defence council.
A day after Western officials said that more Russian troops had entered eastern Ukraine following Putin's decision to recognise the independence of two areas partly controlled by Russia-backed separatists, there was little immediate sign of a major military escalation.
Residents of Schastia, in eastern Ukraine, collect water from wells after the water and electricity was knocked out by artillery on February 23. Photo / Lynsey Addario, The New York Times
But with Russia having built up 190,000 troops in and around Ukraine, according to US officials, the deployment of Russian troops across the border signalled what President Joe Biden on Tuesday called "the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine".
On Wednesday, Australia, Canada and Japan joined the United States, European allies and other nations in announcing sanctions against Russia, whose actions Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada called "a threat to the security and stability of the region and the international rules-based order".
Putin remained defiant, saying in a video speech released on Wednesday that "the interests of Russia and the security of our citizens are unconditional for us".
Speaking on Defenders of the Fatherland Day, a holiday that celebrates Russia's armed forces, Putin did not explicitly mention Ukraine. But he repeated a refrain that has been familiar in the current crisis, blaming the "military activity of the NATO bloc" for the world's dangers and saying that Russia's calls to build an equitable system of international security "remain unanswered".
Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines at Kryakivka,eastern Ukraine, on February 22, 2022. Photo / Tyler Hicks, The New York Times
The Biden administration and European allies have warned that the sanctions imposed so far are only the beginning. Tougher penalties will be imposed "if Russia goes further with this invasion", Biden said on Tuesday.
But Russia's ambassador to Washington said that sanctions would hurt global financial and energy markets, creating pain for Americans as well, and that Russia would not "revise its foreign policy under a threat of restrictions".
"I don't remember a single day when our country lived without any restrictions from the Western world," the ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, said on Facebook. "We have learned to work in such conditions. And not only to survive, but also to develop our state."
Russia's foreign minister said the country would evacuate its diplomats from Ukraine, citing "lawlessness" in the country since 2014 protests forced a pro-Moscow president from power. Video posted on social media Wednesday showed vehicles lined up outside the Russian consulate in Odessa, Ukraine, apparently waiting to leave the compound.
US President Joe Biden discusses sanctions aimed at punishing Russia from the East Room of the White House. Photo / Al Drago, The New York Times
Across Europe, humanitarian groups warned that a further Russian invasion could plunge millions of people into a humanitarian emergency, possibly sending large numbers of refugees fleeing for safety toward European Union nations. The US military has sent 5000 troops to Poland, an EU member that borders Ukraine, to assist with possible arrivals.
The European commissioner for migration, Ylva Johansson, said during a visit to Poland on Tuesday that EU officials were making plans to deal with any large-scale arrival of Ukrainian refugees.
