EU agrees to extend economic sanctions against Russia for another 6 months

(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

last updated 18 June 2015

The European Union agreed to extend economic sanctions against Russia, which were set to expire at the end of July, for another six months.

The sanctions were imposed last year in response to Moscow's annexing Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and providing support to rebel forces in Eastern Ukraine. The extension is expected to be ratified at a meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg next week, diplomats in Brussels announced Wednesday. Decisions on sanctions require unanimity, The New York Times reports, and although Moscow tried to woo Greece, Cyprus, and Hungary, they did not use their veto power.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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