EU sanctions nine people over alleged Russian cyber-spying campaign

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Russian military officers, hackers and private companies, denouncing what it called a years-long cyber-espionage campaign against the bloc.

The European Council said in a statement on Monday that those targeted “contribute to Russia’s efforts to destabilise the EU, its member states and international partners”. The espionage and attacks have taken place in at least nine countries.

The names of the people and entities were not listed in the statement.

It said France, Germany, Poland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Austria, Slovakia, Romania and Finland, “among others”, have been targeted.

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office said it had summoned the Russian ambassador over the “unacceptable” attacks and said they would be met decisively.

“This morning … we summoned the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry in connection with hostile cyber attacks,” a ministry spokeswoman told reporters.

The summons comes as Ukraine’s Western allies prepare for meetings in Paris on Monday to secure more air-defence commitments for Ukraine.

Despite gaining momentum on the battlefield in recent months, Ukraine has been left exposed as Russia stepped up drone and missile strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region in the past few weeks, killing dozens of people.

Ukraine is running low on munitions for its systems and has been largely unable to shoot down ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound, over the past ⁠⁠month.

It has pleaded with allies for more supplies and has also pushed Europe to work with it on its own antiballistic air defence system, including at last week’s NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye.

Coalition of the Willing meet to help Ukraine

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to interact with ۲۵ state leaders at a meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” in Paris to hammer out security guarantees to support the country after months of stalled US-brokered negotiations with Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron will also be attending the summit.

Diplomats said leaders from nine countries, including Italy, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, will meet about a dozen arms companies, including the SAMP-T manufacturer Eurosam, Leonardo, Thales and Saab, before the summit seeking to develop air defence plans for Ukraine.

An announcement on formalising the Freyja project, Ukraine’s attempt to build a European-backed, lower-cost alternative to the US Patriot system, is on the agenda.

Zelenskyy urged allies to increase the pressure on Russia after attacks in Odesa on Monday.

“Today, the Russians have once again ‘vanquished’ over purely civilian sites,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“The pressure on Russia must work. New sanctions against the aggressor. New packages of support for ‌Ukraine, new projects-like our European anti-ballistic project FREYJA- everything must work,” he added.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed the Paris summit as a meeting of a “coalition of warmongers”  who “do not want peace”.

“These are the countries that are undertaking hostile actions against Russia, so we will be watching very closely,” Peskov said.