New EU sanction package against Russia

VILNIUS - As the second anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine approaches, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis is skeptical about the European Union's new sanction package against Russia.

"Without much optimism," he told Lithuanian journalists on Monday ahead the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, asked to comment on the new sanction package.

Landsbergis believes the sanction package will be adopted, but "the only question is what kind of package it will be and whether it will be strong".

Reuters reports that almost 200 entities and individuals are to be included in the new package.

"The whole technical discussion that we are involved in is in no way adequate to the situation on the front line where the Ukrainians are left without weapons and ammunition," Landsbergis said. "We are talking about whether we will be able to add a few hundred more people to the additional sanction package. This is important, I don't deny it, but it does not correspond to reality."

Landsbergis reiterated that sanctions against the Kremlin must also be tightened because of the recent death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who died in a Russian prison last week.

"Alexei Navalny is the author of many names that have been put forward to the European Union for sanctions because he had the best information about who is who in Russia," the minister said.

Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnyaya, is due to meet with European foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.