“We are stepping up our support for Ukraine. For the first time, the EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and equipment to a country under attack,” Von der Leyen said, adding: “First, we are shutting down the EU airspace for Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft. They won’t be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU. Including the private jets of oligarchs.”

“Second, we will ban the Kremlin’s media machine in the EU.   The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war.   We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe,” Von der Leyen stated.

She also said that European Union will target Lukashenko’s regime, with a new package of sanctions, hitting their most important sectors.

“All these measures come on top of the strong package presented yesterday, agreed by our international partners,” she added. (ILKHA)