The European Union will extend punishing economic sanctions against Russia for its involvement in the Ukraine crisis for another six months, diplomatic sources said Thursday. They said ambassadors from the EU's 28 member states were to meet next week on Wednesday to roll-over punitive measures first adopted after the July 2014 downing of a Malaysia Airlines jet, blamed on pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
"It is looking like it will be a rollover for another six months," one diplomatic source told AFP. Amid differences over what line to take as Brussels and Washington seek Russia's help to resolve the Syrian conflict, the sources said the simplest option was to extend the measures.
Moscow has repeatedly dismissed the sanctions which target its bank, oil and defence sectors as both ineffective and counter-productive to a better mutual understanding. "There was a discussion. Poland wanted to put more sanctions on Russia, others less, so in the end there was a tendency to leave them as they are and extend them for six months," another diplomatic source said.