EU slaps 26 additional Russians with sanctions

Brussels, March 1 (AP): The European Union has slapped sanctions on 26 more Russians, including oligarchs, senior officials and an energy insurance company, in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine, bringing the total of people targeted to 68.

EU slaps 26 additional Russians with sanctions

Brussels, March 1 (AP): The European Union has slapped sanctions on 26 more Russians, including oligarchs, senior officials and an energy insurance company, in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine, bringing the total of people targeted to 680.

EU headquarters said those listed include “oligarchs and businessmen active in the oil, banking and finance sectors,” government officials, top military brass and “propagandists who contributed to spread anti-Ukrainian propaganda and promote a positive attitude towards the invasion of Ukraine.” The bloc had already imposed an asset freeze on President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

No travel ban was imposed to allow the two men to take part in any diplomatic efforts, should Russia consider bringing an end to the war on its former Soviet neighbour.

EU sanctions now apply to a total of 680 people and 53 entities, which are usually organizations, agencies, banks or companies. Gas Industry Insurance Company SOGAZ was listed Monday.

___ Kyiv: Satellite images show Russian troops are attacking Ukraine on multiple fronts and are advancing on the capital city of Kyiv.

On Monday, a convoy consisting of hundreds of armoured vehicles, tanks, artillery and support vehicles was just 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the centre of Kyiv.

The city is home to nearly 3 million residents.

The images from Maxar Technologies also captured signs of fighting outside Kyiv, including destroyed vehicles and a damaged bridge.

___ Paris: France has decided to move its embassy out of the Ukrainian capital, but the French ambassador will remain in the country.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says the French Embassy, which had been holding out in Kyiv amid war, was being transferred to the western city of Lviv.

Le Drian told French television station BFMTV on Monday that Ambassador Etienne de Poncins would remain in Ukraine. Russia invaded its smaller neighbour on Thursday, drawing international condemnation.

Asked if the ambassador was under threat in the capital, Le Drian said that “the risks and threats were sufficiently important” to transfer the embassy's operations to Lviv, not far from the Polish border.

___ Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists his country “won't give up” on its relations with either Russia or Ukraine, but says it will implement an international convention that allows Turkey to shut down the straits at the entrance of the Black Sea to the warships of “belligerent countries.” The 1936 Montreux Convention gives Turkey the right to bar warships from using the Dardanelles and the Bosporus during wartime.

Ukraine has asked Turkey to implement the treaty and bar access to Russian warships.

Several Russian ships have already sailed through the straits to the Black Sea in the past weeks and it was not clear how much of an impact Turkey's decision to close down the straits would have on the conflict.

The convention, also provides an exception for Black Sea vessels returning to port.

Turkey has criticised Russia's military aggression in Ukraine, but has also been trying to balance its close ties to Ukraine with its interests in not upsetting its fragile economic relationship with Russia.

___ Moscow: The first round of Ukraine-Russia talks aimed at ending the fighting between Moscow and its smaller neighbour concluded with no immediate agreements.

An aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin says talks with Ukrainian officials lasted nearly five hours.

Vladimir Medinsky headed the Russian delegation in Belarus. He said the two sides “found certain points on which common positions could be foreseen.” Another round of talks was agreed to, Medinsky said.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave few details except to say that the talks, held near the Ukraine-Belarus border, were focused on a possible cease-fire and that a second round could take place “in the near future.” "The next meeting will take place in the coming days on the Polish-Belarusian border, there is an agreement to that effect,” Medinsky said.

___ Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has signed an application for Ukraine to join the European Union.

The action comes five days after Russia invaded its smaller neighbour, touching off widespread international condemnation and offers of military assistance from the 27-member nation EU and elsewhere.

Andrii Sybiha, head of Zelenskyy's office, said on his official Facebook page that the documents “are on the way to Brussels.” Photos of Zelenskyy were posted in Facebook. He was flanked by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and chairman of the parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk.

“The history is being created now," the post said.

The application was largely symbolic, however.

The process could take years. EU membership must be unanimously approved by all members. Ukraine has been weakened by endemic corruption for many years, making the benchmarks of approval extremely hard to reach.

___ Berlin: The European Space Agency says the planned launch of a joint mission with Russia to Mars this year is now “very unlikely” due to sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine.

Following a meeting of officials from its 22 member states Monday, the agency said in a statement that it was assessing the consequences of sanctions for its cooperation with Russia's Roscosmos space agency.

“Regarding the ExoMars program continuation, the sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely,” it said.

The launch was already postponed from 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak and technical problems.

The mission's goal is to put a lander on the red planet to help determine whether there has ever been life on Mars.

On Saturday, Roscosmos said it was pulling its personnel from the European space port in Kourou, French Guiana.

___ Cairo: The Arab League has voiced concerns about the war in Ukraine, but it refrained from demanding an end to the Russian invasion.

The pan-Arab organisation says in a communique Monday it supports all ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis “through dialogue and diplomacy.” The communique comes after a meeting of representatives of the 22-member Arab League in Cairo.

The communique didn't mention Russia, which has close ties with regional powers like Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Most governments in the Arab regions have avoided criticising Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The UAE, which holds a temporary seat at the UN Security Council, has joined China and India in abstaining during a vote on a US resolution condemning the invasion.

___ Kyiv: Ukrainian authorities say at least 44 people have been wounded in fighting in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, and that seven of them died in hospitals.

It wasn't clear if the casualties, which covered the past 24 hours, were all civilians.

The state emergencies agency said the casualties could be higher because the damage from Monday's shelling of residential areas is still being assessed.

Ukrainian social networks featured videos showing residential quarters hit by a series of powerful explosions amid fighting with Russian forces.

The Russian military has consistently denied targeting residential areas despite abundant evidence of shelling of residential buildings, schools and hospitals.

___ Geneva: The Swiss president says Russia's attack on Ukraine is “unacceptable” and Switzerland will adopt European Union sanctions, including asset freezes, targeting Russians – all but depriving well-heeled Russians of access to one of their favourite havens to park their money.

Ignazio Cassis told a news conference Monday that Russia's invasion was intolerable on moral and political grounds. Switzerland's government has been trying to balance its condemnation of Russia's actions with its history of neutrality and as an intermediary between opposing countries.

Referring to the Swiss executive body, he added: “The Federal Council has decided to take up fully the sanctions of the European Union, including the asset freezes.” Switzerland is not a European Union member but is all but surrounded by four EU countries: Austria, France, Germany and Italy.

___ Moscow: Russia has closed its airspace to carriers from 36 nations, including European countries and Canada, responding in kind to their move to close their respective airspaces to all Russian aircraft.

The move, announced Monday by the state aviation agency, follows a decision by the EU and Canada over the weekend to close their skies to the Russian planes in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

It added that planes from those countries could only enter Russia's airspace with special permission. (AP) VM VM

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)