On Monday, March 16, the Council of the EU imposed personal sanctions on nine Russian military officers, as well as four journalists and bloggers who support the war against Ukraine.
According to the Council’s statement, the senior military officials added to the sanctions list bear “responsibility for the Bucha massacre, which took place between February and March 2022” following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During the month-long occupation of Bucha in the Kyiv region by Russian forces, several hundred civilians were killed.
Those placed on the sanctions list include Colonel General Aleksandr Chayko, Colonel Andrey Kondrov, Colonel Artyom Gorodilov, Major General Vladimir Seliverstov, and several other military officers. According to EU documents, all of them bear responsibility for the events in Bucha.
Sanctions were also imposed on four individuals whom the Council considers to be propagandists engaged in information manipulation, so-called hybrid warfare, and interference in the affairs of the European Union. They include Russia-1 presenter Ernest Matskyavichius, blogger and radio host Sergey Klyuchenkov, who uses the pseudonym Sergey Mardan, as well as British citizen Graham Phillips, who supports the invasion of Ukraine, and former French serviceman Adrien Bocquet, who later obtained Russian citizenship.
