Commander of Southern Military District included in EU sanctions list

Alexander Dvornikov, the commander of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces, has become one of the Russian citizens included in the EU sanctions list. After the incident in the Kerch Strait, Alexander Dvornikov is banned from entering the territory of the EU member countries.

The EU sanctions list includes eight Russian officers and border guards. Among them, there are commanders of vessels, chiefs of the Russian and FSB Crimean Departments, and Alexander Dvornikov, the commander of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces, the "Interfax" reports today.

Alexander Dvornikov was appointed the commander of the Southern Military District in 2016.

"In view of the use of force by the Russian Federation that led to the detention of Ukrainian servicemen and the seizure of vessels on November 25, 2018, in the Kerch Strait [...], the Council considers that eight persons should be added to the list of persons subject to restrictive measures," reports today the Official Journal of the European Union as referred to by the RBC.

On November 25, 2018, in the area of the Kerch Strait, Russian border guards used weapons and detained the Ukrainian tugboat "Yany Kapu" and small armoured artillery motor boats "Berdyansk" and "Nikopol", which were heading from Odessa to Mariupol. Several Ukrainian sailors were injured. The vessels were convoyed to Kerch, and 24 Ukrainian citizens onboard were arrested and accused of crossing the border illegally, the "Interfax" reports.

The persons included in the EU sanctions list are banned from entering the territory of EU member countries. All their assets in the European Union are also frozen, reports the BBC Russian Service.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 15, 2019 at 01:06 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.