In a move that brought together twenty-seven foreign ministers, a new round of sanctions against Russia was agreed on Thursday. The measure signaled the latest escalation in the war over Ukraine, amid reports of partial mobilization in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia regions and the announcement of nuclear threats and referendums.
Officials said that further sanctions would be discussed immediately. They would be examined and adopted in coordination with international partners, including both individual targets and sectoral restrictions. The statement came from a senior EU diplomat during a press briefing after the bloc’s extraordinary foreign ministers meeting at the margins of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
As explained, the proposed package would broaden penalties against Russian economic sectors, including technology, and add more individuals to the European Union’s blacklist, freezing their assets and barring them from entering the Union.
EU leaders were set to finalize and implement the measures at a meeting of the Twenty-Seven. The aim, according to officials, was to send a strong political message shortly after President Putin’s address.
“Cynic” and “irresponsible” nuclear threats
From Brussels, leaders noted a rising tension with Moscow and said they would respond to Moscow’s talk of mass mobilization and possible nuclear actions. The EU highlighted that such threats attempt to destabilize Western unity and complicate international efforts to support Ukraine. EU officials argued that the remarks undermine decades of peacebuilding and risk international stability. The head of European diplomacy condemned the rhetoric as reckless and irresponsible, noting that it seeks to erode Western support for Ukraine and to threaten global peace on an unprecedented scale. The remarks underscored the importance of coordinated, principled responses from European institutions and allied partners to deter aggression and uphold security commitments.