EU threatens Russia with unspecified new sanctions

The European Union has threatened Russia with new trade sanctions if Moscow fails to start reversing its action in Ukraine, but sharp divisions among leaders at a summit in Brussels left the timing of any measures uncertain.  After a lengthy briefing by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, who warned ‘full-scale war’ was imminent if Russian troops continued an advance in support of pro-Moscow rebels, the EU leaders agreed on Sunday to have officials draw up within a week a list of new measures that could hit a range of sectors. But anxiety about the impact of sanctions on their own sluggish economies – and their access to Russian energy supplies – meant a divided EU could not agree to impose firm deadlines or precise conditions on Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. He denies his forces are involved, in the face of substantial evidence. The European Council called on Russia ‘to immediately withdraw all its military assets and forces from Ukraine’ and urged a ceasefire. The leaders asked the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, to prepare proposals on new sanctions for them to review within a week, including measures that would penalise any person or body which dealt with Ukraine’s eastern separatists, according to theGuardian.com