New EU sanctions on Russia, demonstrations
The European Union has vowed to increase pressure on Russia “until Ukraine is liberated” as it adopted a tenth package of sanctions on Russia, a day after the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.
“We now have the most far-reaching sanctions ever – depleting Russia’s war arsenal and biting deep into its economy,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter, adding the bloc was turning up the pressure on those trying to circumvent EU sanctions.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned the bloc would continue to pile more sanctions on Russia.
“We will continue to increase pressure on Russia – and we will do it for as long as needed, until Ukraine is liberated from the brutal Russian aggression,” he said in a statement.
Borrell said the latest sanctions tackled the banking sector, Russia’s access to technology that can be used for civilian and military purposes and advanced technologies.
Tweet from @vonderleyen
The package adds electronic components used in Russian weapons systems retrieved on the battlefield, including drones, missiles,
helicopters as well as specific rare earth materials, electronic integrated circuits and thermal cameras to the list of banned exports.
It also imposes tighter export restrictions on another 96 entities for supporting Russia’s military and industrial complex, including for the first time seven Iranian entities manufacturing military drones used by Russia.
Additional restrictions are imposed on imports of goods which generate significant revenues for Russia, such as asphalt and synthetic rubber.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal urged the EU on Saturday to keep increasing the costs for Russia of its invasion.
“The pressure on Russian aggressor must increase. We expect decisive steps against (Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company) Rosatom & Russian nuclear industry, more pressure on military & banking,” Zelenskiy tweeted.
“We expect further intensification of pressure and restrictions, especially in the area of the nuclear industry and the activities of Rosatom,” Shmyhal said in tweet.
EU members agreed on the sanctions late on Friday following hectic last-minute haggling, after Poland temporarily threw a spanner into the works.
Poland said the proposed restrictions on EU imports of Russian rubber included such a big quota of imports exempted and such long transition periods that they would have no effect in practice.
Other EU countries were baffled that Poland – a leading Russia hawk in the bloc – was risking having no new sanctions announced on the key anniversary over a single element of a broader package.
All member states need to approve sanctions for them to be enacted, making negotiations among the 27 often tedious and lengthy.
Meanwhile, Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday forces of his Wagner group had captured the village of Yahidne, just north of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
Reuters could not independently confirm the claim, which Prigozhin made in a short audio message.
“At 1900 on 25th February, storm units of the Wagner private military company secured complete control of the locality of Yagodnoye (Yahidne) to the north of Bakhmut,” Prigozhin said in the clip.
A day earlier, he said Wagner had taken control of Berkhivka, another village on the outskirts of Bakhmut.
The months-long struggle for Bakhmut has resulted in some of the bloodiest attritional fighting of Russia’s year-old invasion of Ukraine.
Wagner units have suffered heavy losses, prompting Prigozhin to complain bitterly that the Russian defence establishment has failed to properly acknowledge their contribution
Demonstrations around the world
At least 10,000 people have taken part in demonstration in the German capital calling for negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine war.
Several thousand people have gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin for a huge rally in favour of negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine war.
Prominent progressive politician Sahra Wagenknecht and women’s rights activist Alice Schwarzer had called for the demonstration, which took place one day after the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Wagenknecht belongs to the Die Linke party, which grew out of the remnants of the former East German communist party.
There was a large influx of crowds on both sides of the Brandenburg Gate, despite sleet and cold.
Some participants carried flags with peace doves.
The police registered 10,000 participants as of 2pm on Saturday.
Final figures were not yet available.
A figure of 50,000 people was mentioned from the stage at the beginning.
The police were deployed with 1400 officers.
Several smaller counter-demonstrations were also registered in the area around the Brandenburg Gate.
The display of certain pro-war symbols has been prohibited at the rally.
These include wearing of military uniforms and insignia, the display of the letters Z and V and “other war-glorifying symbols” as well as “the use of Russian and Soviet military flags,” the Berlin police wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a Z is often seen on Russian military vehicles.
It stands for “za pobedu” (“for victory”) and is also used by Russia’s supporters around the world.
V stands for the phrase “sila v pravde” (“strength in truth”).
A fortnight ago, Wagenknecht and Schwarzer published a Manifesto for
Peace in which they demanded Chancellor Olaf Scholz “stop the escalation of arms deliveries”.
In it, they call for a ceasefire and peace negotiations with Russia.
Critics had accused the organisers of being “naive” to the realities of the war.
One has to understand “that the Russian president currently only accepts one form of negotiation, namely that someone capitulates unconditionally,” Scholz said.
On the other hand, more than 640,000 people declared online they agreed with the manifesto by noon on Saturday.