World fine-tunes curbs; European Union targets Vladimir Putin, Sergey Lavrov

Brussels, February 25

The world has made it clear that intervention in Ukraine is off the books, with countries on Friday throwing ever more punishment at Moscow — from financial to football sanctions.

The European Union could yet go furthest as it was closing in on freezing the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on top of a series of unprecedented measures.

But it was unclear how badly they would be hit by such a move or if it would be mainly symbolic. A decision to freeze their assets indicates that Western powers are moving toward unprecedented measures to force Putin to stop the invasion. “We are not just listing oligarchs, we haven’t just already listed many lawmakers who prepared these steps, but we are now also listing Putin and Lavrov,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

An equally big move would be to ban Putin and Lavrov from EU travel. — AP

Tit for tat: Russia bans UK airlines

London: In a retaliatory move over UK’s ban on Russian flag carrier Aeroflot, President Vladimir Putin on Friday imposed a ban on British airlines from landing in Russia or using its airspace. “That’s their tit-for-tat response,” said UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace. PTI

European rights body suspends Russia

Brussels: The 47-nation Council of Europe on Friday suspended Russia with “immediate effect” from the organisation’s Committee of Ministers and parliamentary assembly for attacking Ukraine. AP

Ukraine went silent on talks possibility: Russia

Moscow: The Kremlin said on Friday it had offered to hold talks with Ukraine in the Belarusian capital Minsk after Ukraine said it was willing to discuss declaring itself a neutral country, but said Ukraine had instead proposed Warsaw as a venue. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine had then taken “quite a long timeout”. “Now, there’s a pause in contacts,” he said. Reuters