The Council of the European Union has imposed restrictive measures on an additional 12 individuals and two entities over Russia\u2019s continued hybrid actions, including foreign information manipulation and cyberattacks against the EU, its member states, and partners. The EU has also expanded the scope of its sanctions regime against Belarus to cover Belarus\u2019s own hybrid hostile actions against its European neighbors. This was stated in an official announcement by the EU Council.<\/p>\n
The Council added to the sanctions list individuals involved in promoting pro-Russian propaganda as well as anti-Ukrainian and anti-NATO narratives. Among them are former military and police officers from Western European countries. In total, restrictive measures now apply to 59 individuals and 17 entities.<\/p>\n
Sanctions were imposed on the International Russophile Movement for spreading destabilizing narratives on behalf of the Russian government, as well as on Russia\u2019s 142nd Separate Electronic Warfare Battalion based in Kaliningrad, which conducts exercises and cyberattacks, including GPS signal disruption in several EU member states.<\/p>\n
Members of Russia\u2019s military intelligence (Unit 29155) and the cyber threat group Cadet Blizzard were also sanctioned for carrying out attacks on Ukrainian government institutions, EU member states, and NATO allies in order to collect sensitive information and destabilize political situations.<\/p>\n
The Council also introduced a new criterion for imposing sanctions on companies and individuals who \u201cbenefit from, are involved in, or facilitate actions or policies associated with the Republic of Belarus that are aimed against democracy, the rule of law, or the stability and security of the EU and its member states.\u201d<\/p>\n
This decision is primarily linked to systematic launches of weather balloons carrying contraband from Belarus into Lithuania.<\/p>\n
The new criterion also covers interference with, damage to, or destruction of critical infrastructure, as well as systematic actions leading to disruptions in the operation of such infrastructure. This formulation applies, in particular, to the situation affecting Vilnius Airport due to weather balloons originating from Belarus.<\/p>\n
In describing the challenges faced by Lithuania, it is noted that weather balloons from Belarus have already affected hundreds of flights and thousands of passengers, causing significant losses for airlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":150848,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-150847","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/150847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=150847"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=150847"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=150847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}