Moscow, July 12 (Interfax) - The leaders of the illegal armed units in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) see no problems in the expansion of the EU sanction list.
DPR First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Purhin told Interfax on Saturday that
the inclusion of these people on the EU sanction list would not affect their
work.
“If we talk about our leadership, about our prime minister, he doesn’t have
[bank] accounts or real estate in Europe, and these sanctions won’t harm him in
any way,” Purhin said.
Oleksiy Chmylenko, the Popular Front leader in the self-proclaimed Luhansk
People’s Republic (LPR), told Interfax that he did not see any problems in the
sanctions the EU imposed earlier on Saturday on a number of LPR leaders.
“Oleksiy Mozhovy, a battalion commander and one of the LPR militia leaders,
is an idea-driven fighter, and these sanctions won’t harm him,” Chmylenko
said.
“So let these Euro-bureaucrats stuff these sanctions anywhere. We are not
scared,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, the European Union published the names of another 11
individuals in its Official Journal to be subject to restrictive measures
because of their role in the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. The sanctions took
effect at the moment of their publication.
In particular, the EU has imposed sanctions on Alexander Borodai, the
so-called prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR),
DPR Security Service chief Oleksandr Khodakovsky, DPR Deputy Prime Minister
Oleksandr Kaliussky, DPR Information and Public Relations Minister Oleksandr
Khriakov, Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) Prime Minister Marat Bashyrov, LPR
Deputy Prime Minister Vasyl Nikitin, LPR Supreme Council Chairman Olelsiy
Kariakin, LPR Interior Minister Yuriy Ivakin, LPR Defense Minister Ihor
Plotnytsky, DPR Cossack Forces Commander Mykola Kozytsyn, and militia leader
Oleksiy Mozhovy.
The EU sanction list concerning Ukraine currently includes 72 names.
The EU announced its intention to put another 11 people on its Ukraine
sanction list on Friday. “In view of the gravity of the situation in Eastern
Ukraine, the Council has today expanded the list of persons subject to targeted
sanctions for actions undermining Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence,” the Council of the EU said in a statement on
July 11.
