BRUSSELS, February 27. /TASS/. The European Union will ban Russia’s Sputnik news agency and Russia Today in all of its member countries, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.
She said the European Union will ban "the Kremlin's media machine. The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war and to sow division in our union," she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning 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.
In response, Western nations have imposed anti-Russian sanctions, both personal and sectoral, including on Russia’s public debt and its baking sector.