MOSCOW, January 17. /TASS/. In response to the European Union’s ninth package of sanctions, Moscow has expanded its blacklist of EU officials who are barred from entering Russia, the Russian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

According to the ministry, Russia’s sanctions cover chiefs of EU law enforcement agencies which are involved in training Ukrainian troops within the framework of the EU mission to provide military assistance to Kiev.

Additionally, sanctions were imposed against European state and commercial structures manufacturing weapons and military hardware and supplying them to Kiev, as well as against EU nationals indulging in systematic anti-Russian rhetoric in public. The blacklist also includes several European Parliament members, the ministry added.

The ministry stressed that the EU sanctions are geared to exert pressure on Russia. "We consider such actions by the EU as illegitimate, undermining the UN Security Council’s legal purviews," it said. "Any unfriendly actions by Western countries will receive a timely and adequate response."

Since February 2022, the European Union has adopted nine packages of economic and personal sanctions against Russia. On December 5, it enforced an embargo on supplies of Russian oil to its member nations. On December 16, the ninth package of sanctions was imposed. The EU blacklist named 141 more individuals and 40 legal entities, including three banks. Apart from that, the EU began the procedure of stripping four Russian television channels of airtime and imposed several export bans.