On the one-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has approved a tenth package of sanctions against the country. The sanctions are designed to make financing the war more difficult, as well as starve Russia of tech equipment and spare parts for arms used against Ukraine. This includes tighter export restrictions on dual-use goods, measures against entities supporting Russia’s war, and blacklisting more individuals. The package also seeks to cut off more Russian banks from the global system SWIFT and reduce trade between the EU and Russia by more than 10 billion euros ($10.5bn).
The sanctions come as Ukraine marks the one-year anniversary of the invasion, with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal posing in front of four Leopard battle tanks provided by Poland. Poland is also giving Ukraine 14 Leopard A2 tanks, as well as 60 PT-91 main battle tanks, which are Polish combat vehicles based on the Soviet T-72 tank but further developed and modernised. Ukrainian soldiers will be trained by Polish, Canadian and Norwegian instructors at the Leopard training centre in western Poland.
The EU stands united with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, and will continue to support them for as long as it takes. The sanctions are intended to send a strong message of solidarity with Ukraine, and demonstrate that the EU will not tolerate any form of aggression or violation of international law.