BERLIN, March 1. /TASS/. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that the EU is ready to adopt new sanctions packages against Russia. He said this at a joint press conference with Prime Minister of Luxembourg Xavier Bettel on Tuesday.

"To the [sanctions] packages on which we have already made decisions and which are partially being implemented, we will certainly add new ones," he said.

"We gave a clear, decisive answer, we have made the decision on the toughest sanctions," Scholz said.

The Chancellor noted that, together with French President Emmanuel Macron, he made diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis around Ukraine.

"But the truth is that the decision [of Moscow on the military operation] was made a long time ago. I think that it should be clear for us that this could happen a very long time ago. We have to take this seriously. Because it's a threatening situation," he said.

Scholz also said that "it is necessary to increase independence from energy imports" and called for more intensive efforts to switch to renewable sources.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

When clarifying the developments unfolding, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.

After that the U.S., the EU, the UK and a number of other states announced that they would impose sanctions against Russian legal entities and individuals.