Russia slams latest sanctions from EU

MOSCOW/KYIV — The latest round of European Union sanctions against Russia over Ukraine will only exacerbate problems within the bloc, a spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Ministry says.

EU leaders agreed last week to provide 18 billion euros ($19 billion) in financing to Ukraine next year and hit Moscow with a ninth round of sanctions. The latest measures blacklist nearly 200 more people and bar investment in Russia's mining industry, among other steps.

The latest announced sanctions "will have the same effect as all the previous ones — exacerbation of socio-economic problems in the European Union itself", a ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Saturday.

She also called on the EU to cancel all restrictions that directly or indirectly are having an impact on Russian exports of grains and fertilizers.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would expand trade collaboration with new partners to combat Western sanctions.

On the battlefield, Russia said on Saturday that it had prevented the delivery of foreign weapons to Ukraine as part of mass strikes a day earlier that caused power and water outages across the country.

On Friday, "military command systems, the military-industrial complex and their supporting energy facilities of Ukraine were hit with a mass strike with high-precision weapons", Russia's defense ministry said in its daily briefing.

"The target had been reached. All assigned objects were hit."

Russia launched a barrage of missiles on many cities in Ukraine on Friday, plunging them into darkness, cutting water and heat and forcing people to endure subzero temperatures.

After the latest missile attacks, Ukrainians worked to restore electricity and water supplies.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said late on Saturday that electricity had been restored to almost 6 million Ukrainians, but said there were continuing problems with heat and water supplies, and "large-scale outages" in many regions.

"The main thing today is energy," he said in his nightly address. "There is still a lot of work to do to stabilize the system."

In the capital, Kyiv, the metro had stopped running so that people wrapped in winter coats could take shelter at underground stations, but Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Saturday that the service had resumed.

Water supply had also been restored, and 75 percent of the city's population had their heating back.

Agencies Via Xinhua