European Union (EU) leaders on Thursday agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another six months .
“Agreed. EU will extend economic sanctions against Russia for their lack of implementing the Minsk Agreement,” President of the European Council Donald Tusk confirmed on Twitter account.
EU first agreed to impose economic sanctions against Russia in 2014.
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.
Ukraine has been wracked by conflict since March 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea after an illegal independence vote.
This had 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.
Along with many UN countries, the U.S., the EU and Turkey also do not recognize Crimea as Russian territory.