EU approves decision to individual sanctions against Russia

Permanent representatives of 28 EU countries approved a decision to extend findividual sanctions against Russia for another 6 months on Wednesday, a source in the European Council told TASS.

"At the scheduled Coreper meeting today the ambassadors approved extending individual restrictive measures for the next six months," the source said.

The source also said that the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Zakharchenko, who was killed on August 31, was excluded from the blacklist. Thus, EU sanctions apply to 154 individuals and 44 organizations.

According to the diplomat, today's decision will formally be approved by the European Council in the coming days, then it will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will come into force.

Currently, several EU sanctions packages are in force against Russia: economic, individual restrictive measures and sanctions on Crimea. The latter is a set of targeted sanctions against Crime - the European businesses is prohibited from maintaining any connections with it. These measures were taken within the framework of the so-called EU strategy on the non-recognition of Crimea's reunification with Russia, and are in force until January 31, 2019 with the possibility of extension.