The European Union says it has approved an embargo on Russian coal and the closing of the bloc's ports to Russian vessels over the Ukraine war.
An official from the French presidency of the European Council said the decision, approved on Thursday, spearheads a "very substantial" fifth round of sanctions against Moscow.
It is the first time the bloc has targeted the Russian energy sector, on which it is heavily dependent.
EU nations import 45 percent of their coal from Russia, worth 4 billion euros a year.
But the embargo will only come into force in early August, 120 days after the publication of the new package in the EU's official journal, expected on Friday.
The date has been the subject of heated disputes within the bloc, with Poland in particular seeking to shorten the transition period.
Blacklist extended
In addition to the sanctions, the EU also backed a proposal to boost its funding of arms supplies to Ukraine by 500 million euros, taking it to a total of 1.5 billion euros.
The list of Russian products banned from the EU is also being extended to include certain "critical raw materials and equipment" worth an estimated 5.5 billion euros a year. The move is intended to stop the financing of Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.
Russian and Belarusian road hauliers are now banned from operating in the EU, the French Presidency said in a series of tweets.
The sanctions package also includes a 10 billion euro ban on exports to Russia covering high-tech goods, the freezing of the assets of several Russian banks and the blacklisting of a further 200 names, including Vladimir Putin's adult daughters and leading oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who had managed to avoid inclusion on the sanction list up til now.
🔴#Ukraine | COREPER II approves a new package of sanctions in the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
— Présidence française du Conseil de l’UE 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@Europe2022FR) April 7, 2022
This very substantial package extends the sanctions against Russia to new areas and notably includes ⤵️ 1/5#EU2022FR pic.twitter.com/njjN0XpGCo
European Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter the package would be "swiftly approved".
Russia "will suffer a long descent into economic, financial and technological isolation", European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.
The new financial measures were proposed by the European Commission after the bodies of dozens of civilians were found last weekend in Bucha, near Kyiv.
(with wires)
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