The European Union has already adopted the decision on new sanctions against Russia over the Kerch Strait incident, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told Sputnik on Saturday
MUNICH/KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2019) The European Union has already adopted the decision on new sanctions against Russia over the Kerch Strait incident, Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl told Sputnik on Saturday.
"A resolution is already taken on a necessary level," Kneissl said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, meanwhile, said that the restrictions in question would be personal sanctions against a number of individuals.
"On Monday, everyone already knows, it is not a secret, there will be personal sanctions. Currently, the discussion is ongoing. It will be on Monday. I hope very much, it is not the end [of Russia sanctions]. We are also discussing other ideas ... Among those that you have heard is the possibility of restrictions on some Russian vessels, but there are more creative ideas," Klimkin said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, as broadcast by the 112 Ukraine tv channel.
According to Klimkin, there will be also a response from the United States in the near future.
On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained 24 people on board after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. After the incident, a criminal case on illegal border crossing was opened in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a provocation, noting that there were members of the Ukrainian security service, who were in charge of the operation, on board the Ukrainian vessels. According to Putin, the provocation was prepared in advance as a pretext to declare martial law in Ukraine, which was announced after the incident and lasted for a month, and was President Petro Poroshenko's attempt to shore up his falling ratings ahead of the March presidential election.
