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Kiev/Washington (Alliance News) - The US and the EU on Monday imposed a new round of sanctions against Russia as eastern Ukraine slipped further into chaos.
The US Treasury Department blacklisted seven Russian officials and 17 companies who it linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle.
The sanctions are a response to "Russia's continued illegal intervention in Ukraine" that undermines the country's territorial integrity," the White House said.
Among the officials hit by asset freezes and US visa bans are deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who oversaw the Sochi Winter Olympics, and the heads of the state oil giant Rosneft and arms and technology holding Rostec, Igor Sechin and Sergei Chemezov.
Russian Deptuy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the latest sanctions "evoke disgust" and resemble a distortion of foreign policy rather than a responsible approach, the Interfax news agency reported.
The EU, for its part, agreed to blacklist a further 15 Russians, extending the number of individuals hit by EU travel bans and asset freezes to 48.
The new names are to be published early Tuesday. More individuals could still be added, possibly this week, according to EU diplomats.
The EU is also preparing for possible wider-ranging economic sanctions, but has so far shied away from this due to countries' trade links to Russia, which supplies a large share of European energy.
US President Barack Obama said during a visit to the Philippines that the US would impose so called "sectoral sanctions" if Russia does not change its behaviour.
Obama stressed that the goal of the sanctions is not to go after Putin personally but "to change his calculus."
Western governments and the leadership in Kiev accuse Russia of actively backing pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine with arms and intelligence agents on the ground.
The violence in the region spread on Monday, when the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second biggest city, was shot in an apparent assassination attempt.
Gennady Kernes was in stable but critical condition after undergoing emergency surgery in a hospital, his office said. He had been shot in the back while jogging.
Kernes used to be a staunch supporter of former President Viktor Yanukovych, but has sided with Ukraine's new pro-Western government more recently.
Unlike neighbouring regions, the industrial city of 1.4 million has largely been spared the occupation of public buildings by pro-Russian militants.
In the Donetsk region, militants seized the administration building in Kostiantynivka, a city half-way between the regional capital Donetsk and Sloviansk, which has been at the centre of the pro-Russian uprising.
Ukraine's State Security Service said that the Sloviansk separatists were holding some 40 people hostage, including seven European military observers and numerous journalists.
Germany has demanded the release of the observers, four of whom are German, and has called upon Russia to distance itself from the kidnappings.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the hostages are being "held captive against every law and without any reason."
The observers were captured on Friday during a verification mission under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The pro-Russian militants accused them of being NATO spies. On Sunday they had released a Swedish officer for medical reasons.
Also on Monday, the EU signed a deal providing Kiev with EUR1 billion in loans, as part of an EUR11 billion long-term EU aid package to support political and economic reform in the cash-strapped country.
Slovakia and Ukraine, meanwhile, signed off a gas pipeline project in a bid to reduce Kiev's dependency on direct energy provisions from Russia.
Under the deal, the Vojany gas pipeline will be adapted to allow an estimated 22 million cubic metres of gas to flow daily from Slovakia to Ukraine from the autumn, the European Commission in Brussels said, calling this a "first step" to enabling so-called reverse gas flows to Ukraine.
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