The new sanctions approved today in Brussels send a strong, unified signal to Russia to keep to the commitments made in recent months. This was the view of Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who commented: “The European Union decided unanimously today to apply new sanctions to Russia. This step has become necessary in view of Moscow’s failure to collaborate, as it was frequently asked to do, quite apart from its failure to respect the commitments it made officially. At the very least, the Malaysia Airlines tragedy should have prompted the Russian authorities to at last respect – through concrete acts – the repeated commitments made in recent months. But that did nothappen”, she observed.
“The violence in eastern Ukraine continues and they continue to deny full access to the area where the aircraft fell to allow the search and investigation teams to recover all the bodies and conduct an impartial and reliable investigation”.
“The package of new sanctions put forward by the EU foreign ministers last week and adopted unanimously today by the permanent representatives sends a strong signal of unity and a clear message to Moscow. I hope the Russian Federation will finally follow up on its commitments and work for a political solution to the crisis”, concluded Minister Mogherini.
