EU Mulls Ban on Sales of anti-Riot Gear to Ukraine
The European Union will look at a possible ban on the sale of anti-riot equipment and arms to Ukraine as well as other sanctions at talks in Brussels on Thursday.
A draft statement seen by Agence France Presse that is to be finalized by the bloc's 28 foreign ministers at emergency talks scheduled for 1400 GMT says that the EU "is gravely concerned about the deteriorating situation in Ukraine."
It will therefore decide "as a matter of urgency" to agree targeted sanctions against people "responsible for violence and use of excessive force", says the document that was circulated to EU member states to be finalized later by the ministers.
There is no list of names attached to the page-and-a-half long document, though EU diplomats have told AFP that President Viktor Yanukovych is unlikely to be targeted.
Sanctions including a travel ban and asset freeze would be more likely against police chiefs and high-ranking civil servants in the interior and justice ministries, sources said.
The draft, which was still under discussion by EU diplomats only hours before the ministers' crisis talks, strongly condemns the violence on the streets of Ukraine.
It also urges all sides to immediately engage in political dialogue and says Yanukovych must take "the first step" enabling such dialogue.
And it reiterates the EU's calls for constitutional reform and the formation of a new government ahead of the organization of free and fair elections.
Yanukovych was holding crisis talks with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland ahead of the emergency meeting in Brussels.
The U.S. State Department earlier announced travel bans on about 20 senior Kiev government figures.
Ukraine's deadliest violence since independence was initially ignited by Yanukovych's shock decision in November to ditch an historic EU trade and political association agreement in favor of closer ties with Kiev's historic masters in the Kremlin.
The protests that erupted at the time have since evolved into a much broader anti-government movement that has swept through both the pro-Western west of the country, as well as parts of its more Russified east.
Source: Agence France Presse
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