EU's 10th sanctions package against Russia 'on its way'

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ISTANBUL (AA) - The head of the European Commission on Friday announced that the EU was working on a 10th sanctions package against Russia.

"The 10th package is on its way. We have the aim to have it in place by the 24th of February," Ursula von der Leyen said in a recorded joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleskyy and European Council President Charles Michel, following a summit between the two sides.

Stressing that the Russian economy was already "paying a high price" for the war in Ukraine thanks to the sanctions that the EU has already imposed on Moscow, von der Leyen said the new package, planned to go into force on Feb. 24, exactly a year after the war began, had a volume of around €10 billion ($10.8 billion).

"It's a massive package again," she said. "The plan is to focus once more on technology that can and should not be used by Russia's war machine. In other words, we look deeper into components that were found, for example, in drones to make sure that there's zero availability for Russia of these technologies or the drones' production, for example in Iran, that we are following up closely."