The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc had agreed to include Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov on its list of sanctioned individuals after the Russian attack on Ukraine.
“Let me declare that the only world leaders subject to EU sanctions are Assad from Syria, Lukashenko from Belarus and now Putin from Russia,” Borrell said, at a press conference after a meeting of EU foreign ministers to set out the details of his sanctions against Russia.
On Friday, the European Union countries had unanimously agreed to freeze the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the bloc’s countries, European sources told AFP.
The measure was proposed during an extraordinary European summit Thursday in Brussels, and Friday was added to a package of sanctions to be implemented by foreign ministers, according to the same sources.
During the summit, Germany and Italy expressed reservations about this proposal, which was supported by a large number of European leaders, according to two officials.
Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron said that European sanctions would target Russia’s “largest leaders” over the attack on Ukraine.
For his part, the German Finance Minister called for tougher sanctions against Russia, adding that the sanctions should affect Putin and Lavrov.