Russia-Ukraine War: EU Moves To Aid Ukraine, Punish Putin
Anger and anxiety across Europe have seen the European Union announcing new stringent measures designed to bolster Ukraine in its fight against Russia while imposing bans on Russian aircraft and state-owned media outlets.
In what many commentators have described as a historic move, the European Commission President Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen said on Sunday; “For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack.”
According to Von der Leyen; “This is a watershed moment” because the EU would provide weapons to Ukraine while banning state-owned media outlets Russia Today and Sputnik.
She went on to add that “in another unprecedented step, we will ban in the EU the Kremlin’s media machine,” citing Russia Today and Sputnik.
The moves came on the same day Ukraine agreed to talks with Russian officials in neighboring Belarus, after initially rejecting the idea, while Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his country’s nuclear deterrent forces to be on high alert.
Fighting continued across Ukraine early Sunday, with the Russian assault appearing to be stymied by the stiffer-than-expected resistance, according to a United States defense official. The area surrounding Kyiv saw fighting and heard blasts and air-raid sirens, while Ukrainian officials claimed they had regained control of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, from Russian forces.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, is halting all launches of its Soyuz rocket from Europe’s spaceport in South America over sanctions imposed by the European Union.
“In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roscosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners” on space launches from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said in a statement posted Saturday on Twitter, according to a translation.
The agency said it will also withdraw 87 personnel from the South American launch site who work for several Russian companies to support the launch of Soyuz rockets. “The issue of the departure of Russian employees is being worked out,” Roscosmos said on Twitter.
Russian-built Soyuz rockets are used to launch satellites from French Guiana for Arianespace, a commercial launch provider based in France.
Roscosmos‘ announcement will likely delay the launch of two Galileo navigation satellites from South America, while increasing tensions between Russia and its other space agency partners, including NASA and the European Space Agency. – With The Guardian reports
