According to an EU statement, made known on Thursday, September 12, the Council of the European Union has extended sanctions against Russia for six months. The sanctions to 170 people and 44 Russian entities in response to "actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine", were extended until at least March 15, 2020.
In addition to these sanctions, the European response to the Ukrainian crisis includes other economic sanctions aimed at specific sectors of the Russian economy, currently in force until January 31, 2020.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that its country is not part of the conflict in Ukraine and reaffirmed that the accession of Crimea had been carried out in compliance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
The community bloc applied two rounds of economic measures in July and September 2014, which have been extended since then and cover the financial, energy, and defense sectors, as well as dual-use items. Moscow responded to the sanctions with an embargo on agricultural food imports from those countries.
On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev declared that Moscow had the disposition to discuss with the West the possibility of abolishing bilateral sanctions, but ruled out the first step to do so.
