EU renews Russia sanctions for three years, but drops two oligarchs under French and Slovak pressure

The EU's 27 member states agreed hours before a midnight deadline to extend the Russia sanctions regime to 22 September 2029, but as part of the compromise struck oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the blacklist under pressure from France and Slovakia; Latvia, which had wanted the sanctions tightened rather than eased, eventually dropped its objection to delisting the two. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha called the decision "Moscow's victory," saying it hands Russia a sense of impunity and divides Europeans.

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