The EU Council is meeting on Monday, 12 May 2014, to discuss the crisis in Ukraine. After the President of the Council announced [yesterday] that “further steps in destabilizing Ukraine will call for additional sanctions”, the Council stated today that next Monday, it could “broaden the EU’s targeted restrictive measures for actions undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine” (see official press release here). The press is speculating that EU Foreign Ministers have been discussing the possibility of aligning the EU sanctions with the US by designating companies (as opposed to just individuals).
As of today, it appears that autonomy referendums arranged by pro-Russian activists in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk will likely go ahead on Sunday, in a move that could contribute to the likelihood of fresh EU sanctions on Monday. The Obama administration has also stated that such referendums would also be a trigger for new US sanctions against Moscow. Â
