President of Ukraine Volodymyr ZelenskyMOSCOW, March 9 Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine expects «tough sanctions decisions» of the European Union against Russia.
"We are already expecting tough decisions from the European Union on sanctions against Russia for this war — not just like that, not against ordinary people, but for this aggression" video message published in his Telegram channel.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine early in the morning on Thursday, February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, the civilian population is not in danger. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive. But there is no question of the occupation of Ukraine, the President of Russia emphasized. In response, Western countries introduced new anti-Russian sanctions. In particular, several of the largest banks in the Russian Federation, including Sberbank and VTB, fell under them. The European Union, the USA, Canada and a number of other countries have closed the skies for Russian aircraft. A number of state-owned companies found it difficult to attract foreign capital. Sanctions have been imposed on the supply of high-tech products to Russia. As the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said earlier, the Western sanctions are very serious, Russia was preparing for them in advance. He added that they require analysis and coordination of departments in order to develop response measures that meet the interests of the Russian Federation. Western companies that refuse to work with Russia did so under enormous pressure, but Russia will solve all the problems with the economy that the West creates for it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier.
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