EU agrees to freeze Putin, Lavrov assets over Ukraine

The European Union (EU) has agreed to freeze European assets linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, three EU officials and a European diplomat told AFP on Friday.

The measures were added on Friday after being raised in overnight discussions by EU leaders on a new sanctions package that EU foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc were to validate.

EU leaders agreed on Thursday to impose new sanctions on Russia's financial, energy and transport sectors, introduce export controls, and blacklist more Russians following Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.

This means countries that sell their products to Russia will see trade revenues fall. Russia, Europe's main energy supplier, could retaliate by curbing gas, oil and coal sales to the EU, though this would be costly for Moscow.

"Of course we will pay a price economically for this war," European Economic Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said on arriving for EU finance ministers' talks in Paris.

"We will discuss this today, how this war will impact in our economic forecasts," he said. "I think that... the costs of reacting to this invasion, to this violation of international law, are costs that we must afford."

The European Central Bank's chief economist Philip Lane has told fellow policymakers the Ukraine conflict may reduce the euro zone's GDP by 0.3%-0.4% this year.

Agencies