EU blacklists 9 people over E. Ukraine elections, signals no new Russia sanctions – report

The EU on Monday blacklisted nine people involved in the elections in eastern Ukraine last month but signaled no further punitive measures against Moscow over the latest flare-up of tensions with Kiev in the Azov Sea, Reuters reports. The EU’s foreign ministers meeting in Brussels said they would look at offering more assistance to Ukraine. The ministers discussed with Ukraine’s FM Pavlo Klimkin “the latest developments in the Azov Sea but also, and mainly, the support of the EU to Ukraine, to Ukrainian people, to territorial integrity of the country,” according to the EU’s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini. The bloc on Monday adopted a decision to add nine people to its blacklist as a follow-up to the vote in eastern Ukraine, diplomatic sources and officials said. However, their names are set to be released later. On November 11, new heads of the self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Lugansk and members of the people’s councils were elected.