European Union leaders on Thursday extended punishing economic sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine for another six months. “Russia sanctions unanimously extended for another six months because of a lack of Minsk Agreements implementation,” a spokesman for EU President Donald Tusk tweeted from a summit in Brussels. The sanctions target whole sectors of the Russian economy including its valuable oil businesses. Earlier on Thursday the EU extended by one-year separate sanctions imposed over Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. These measures prohibit certain exports and imports from Crimea, and ban EU-based companies from investment and tourism services in the strategic Black Sea peninsula.

Source: Punch June 20, 2019 19:30 UTC