BREAKING NEWS

EU will freeze Putin, Lavrov bank accounts, but no travel ban

The European Union will freeze bank accounts of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the bloc but will not issue a travel ban, Austria's Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Friday.

"There will be no travel ban against them, though, because we want to retain the possibility of negotiations in order to end the violence in Ukraine," Schallenberg said as he arrived for an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.