The European Union has passed its latest package of sanctions on Russia, the bloc’s foreign policy chief announced on Thursday.
"We just adopted our 19th sanctions package. It targets Russian banks, crypto exchanges, entities in India and China, among others," Kaja Kallas wrote on X.
The EU is also curbing Russian diplomats’ movements "to counter the attempts of destabilisation," she added.
"It is increasingly harder for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to fund this war," Kallas added about the Russia-Ukraine war, which is set to mark its fourth anniversary early next year.
The US on Wednesday also imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, citing Moscow’s "lack of serious commitment" to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.
Millions have been killed, wounded, or displaced during the more than three years of war between Russia and Ukraine.
China slams EU, says dialogue 'only viable way' out of war
China on Thursday slammed the EU over its fresh Russia sanctions, stressing that dialogue and negotiation are the "only viable way" out of the Russia-Ukraine war.
China "firmly" opposes this decision and has lodged "serious protests with the EU side," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news conference in Beijing.
"As we've stressed on multiple occasions, China is not the creator of the current crisis, nor a party to it," Guo said.
"China is committed to promoting talks for peace, has never provided lethal weapons to any party to the conflict, and exercised strict export over dual use articles," he said, urging the EU to "stop making an issue about China, stop undermining China's interests."
"It is not conducive to the sound and steady development of China-EU ties," he said.
"Coercion and putting pressure on others will not solve any problem," Guo said.
India has not yet issued an official response to the latest sanctions. However, New Delhi has previously reacted strongly to the United States and European Union over sanctions, tariffs, and warnings linked to its purchase of Russian oil amid the Ukraine conflict.
The Indian government has criticised the US and EU for importing substantial volumes of goods—Europe notably including energy—from Russia, while penalising India for similar transactions.
Russia says European sanctions simply do not work
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that the EU sanctions against Russia worked primarily against the bloc itself, adding that the EU elites simply could not accept that their sanctions were not working.
US and EU sanctions on Russia 'very important': Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, hailed US and EU sanctions on Russia's energy sector as "very important".
"We waited for this. God bless it will work and this is very important," Zelensky told journalists at an EU summit in Brussels, saying Washington had sent "a good signal to other countries in the world to join the sanctions."
