The European Union is ready to make the Kremlin pay a "hefty price" for the latest escalation of the conflict in Ukraine by announcing the annexation of four regions, an EU official said on Thursday.
The remarks came after Moscow announced earlier on Thursday that it will officially annex the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
The European Union "will not accept these sham referendums organized by Russia in Ukraine and will never accept any annexation of territory or any land by Russia," Dana Spinant, the European Commission's deputy chief spokesperson, told a daily news briefing.
Referring to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell's recent announcement on the bloc's eighth sanctions package against Russia, she asserted that the EU is "ready to make the Kremlin (pay) a hefty price for this new escalation."
The EU also asked UN nations to follow its example and not recognize this "illegal" annexation, "as Russia is stepping up from its escalation to actually grabbing territories from Ukraine," added Peter Stano, lead spokesperson on foreign affairs.
The EU's latest draft sanctions would add new entries to its individual sanctions list, targeting those who are responsible for the recently announced military mobilization of over 300,000 Russian citizens, and the holding of referendums in the Ukrainian regions.
On Tuesday, Ukraine's separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson concluded five days of referendums on joining Russia.
Since the beginning of Russia's war on Ukraine in February, EU sanctions have targeted, among others, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, banned the trade of certain goods and commodities with Russia, and excluded Russian and Belarusian banks from the SWIFT international payment system.
