DPA: EU will prolong sanctions against Russia

- The EU’s economic sanctions against Russia will likely stay in place for another six months after the bloc’s ambassadors agreed Tuesday to prolong them, according to a diplomat speaking to the German news agency DPA on conditions of anonymity.

The ambassadors' decision, which is expected to be formalized on Friday, relates to the toughest of sanctions imposed by the bloc on Moscow. They hamper Russian imports into the EU and Russian banks' access to European markets, DPA reports.

The sanctions are currently in place until the end of July, and todays decision paves the way for them to be prolonged until the end of January.

The European Union has imposed restrictive measures on Moscow because of its annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014, and its alleged support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.