BRUSSELS, February 25. /TASS/. The European Union has extended its very first set of sanctions against Ukrainian officials and businessmen for corruption and misuse of funds, originally imposed immediately after the coup in the country, for another year, until March 5, 2027, the EU Council said.

The sanctions were imposed in early March 2014 against President Viktor Yanukovich and his entourage.

Initially, there were 18 people on the blacklist, including Yanukovich and his sons. After numerous court proceedings and the deaths of some of the defendants, three people remain on the list today: businessman Sergey Kurchenko, Interior Minister during the "Maidan" Vitaly Zakharchenko, and his deputy Viktor Ratushnyak. They are banned from entering the EU, and their assets remain frozen.

These are the very first EU sanctions related to the conflict in Ukraine. As Vladimir Chizhov, who was Russia's permanent representative to the EU at that time, explained to TASS earlier, Brussels, accusing the entire ousted leadership of Ukraine of corruption, actually tried to legitimize the coup in Ukraine. These restrictions have long lost any practical meaning, but the EU continues to maintain the sanctions as a symbolic gesture of European legitimization of the Maidan.