Moscow - The European Union may discuss further economic sanctions against Russia at a summit in December if the militants of the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk make an attempt to take control of new territories in Ukraine's east, Kommersant reported with reference to EU sources.
A source in Brussels told Kommersant that tougher sanctions aimed at certain sectors of the Russian economy may be included in the agenda of the EU summit scheduled for Dec. 18-19.
“In case of aggravation of the situation in southeastern Ukraine, this tool could be used again,” the source said.
Another source of Kommersant from a key EU country explained that the red line for Brussels is “an attempt by Moscow-backed separatists to seize new territories in addition to those they control today.”
Kommersant says that a number of participants in a recent EU meeting were disappointed that the economic sanctions against Russia had not been tightened. What is more, Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Grzegorz Schetyna said that the discussion had demonstrated the lack of unity within the EU countries in the issue of the Ukrainian crisis.
“The differences were significant, and one should be content with what is available now,” he said.
Kommersant learnt that during the meeting some EU ministers had spoken for including the phrase about the possibility of tightening the economic sanctions against Russia in their final statement. However, this proposal was rejected. As a compromise, the following sentence was incorporated into the Council conclusions on Ukraine: “The Council will continue to closely follow the situation on the ground and will act accordingly.”
