European Union (EU) leaders on Thursday agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months.
"EU united on roll-over of economic sanctions on Russia,” President of the European Council Donald Tusk confirmed on his Twitter account during the EU Leaders Summit in Brussels.
The EU first agreed to impose economic sanctions against Russia in 2014 because of the destabilization of Ukraine by Russia.
These restrictive measures "impose an export and import ban on trade in arms, establish an export ban for dual-use goods for military use or military end users in Russia and curtail Russian access to certain sensitive technologies and services that can be used for oil production and exploration”, according to the council’s website.
The Ukraine has been wracked by conflict since March 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea after an illegal independence vote.
This followed violent anti-government protests which led to the overthrow of the then-president, Victor Yanukovych.
The UN General Assembly later voted to proclaim the Russian annexation as illegal.
Many UN countries, the U.S., the EU and Turkey do not recognize Crimea as Russian territory.
(Anadolu Agency, Dec. 15, 2017)
