JAKARTA - The European Union (EU) will toughen sanctions against Russia, target its ally, Belarus, and finance the procurement of weapons for Ukraine to help fight the Russian invasion.
"For the first time, the European Union will fund the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country under attack," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday, February 27.
The EU will close their airspace to Russian aircraft, including private jets of Russian oligarchs, he said.
The European economic and political bloc will also ban the Russian state TV network Russia Today and the Sputnik news agency.
According to Von der Leyen, the ban is aimed at preventing Russia from "spreading lies that justify Putin's war and sowing division in our (European) Union." Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation", which it says is not designed to occupy territory, but to destroying its neighboring country's military capabilities and to arrest those it deems dangerous nationalists. Against Belarus, the EU will impose a ban on imported products, from mineral fuels to tobacco, wood and blocks, cement, iron and steel.
This move adds to a series of previously announced sanctions against Russia, such as in the energy sector and the exclusion of a number of Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system that dominates global markets.
In addition, the EU will also fund the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to Ukraine. "Another taboo is being broken. The taboo that the EU does not provide weapons in war," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement before a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
The bloc plans to budget 450 million euros (around Rp. 7.2 trillion) for Ukrainian weapons, a source at the European Commission told Reuters, and an additional 50 million euros (around Rp. 801 billion) for logistics such as medical supplies. How will Russia react to this plan? We are waiting for the next development.
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