BRUSSELS: The European Union has frozen the assets of ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich and 17 other officials who were responsible for violations of human rights and misuse of state funds.
In a statement issued on Thursday by the 28-nation bloc, it was stated that the freeze targets people identified as responsible for misappropriating Ukrainian state funds.
The people whose assets have been frozen also include former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, the former head of Ukraine’s security service, a former prosecutor general, a former interior minister and a former justice minister.
Later on Thursday, the European Union leaders will hold an emergency summit in Brussels to decide how they should respond to Russia’s troop deployment in Ukraine’s Crimea region.