The European Union introduced a number of new sanctions against Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a news conference on Sunday. They will also finance the purchase of weapons for the first attacked country.

The new sanctions come after the European Union announced a number of new sanctions also on Saturday.

Highlights from von der Leyen’s speech:

• State-owned Russian media to be banned in EU
• Entire EU closes airspace to Russian aircraft
• EU imposes sanctions on Belarus
• The EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons for the first time

– For the first time, the EU will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to the country under attack. This is a watershed, says von der Leyen.

The European Union has set aside 450 million euros, the equivalent of about 4.5 billion Norwegian kroner, for weapons and equipment for Ukraine, sources told Reuters.

Von der Leyen further said that they closed the entire EU airspace to Russian aircraft. They will not have the opportunity to land, take off, or fly over the EU.

“Our airspace will be closed to all Russian aircraft, including oligarchic private jets,” he said.

State-owned Russian media will be banned in the EU. Sputnik, Russia Today and their subsidiaries are among the media to be banned.

The European Commission proposal will be presented to the foreign ministers of member states for approval in the evening.

Sanctions against Belarus

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, will also be aware of the EU sanctions.

– We will impose restrictive measures affecting their most important sectors, which will affect their exports of everything from fuel to tobacco, timber, cement, iron and steel.

Von der Leyen also promised sanctions against Belarus for contributing to Russia’s war.

– We want the Ukrainians who fled Putin’s bombing with open arms, and I am proud of the warm welcome that Europeans have given them.

EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said during a press conference on Sunday that more and more civilian infrastructure was affected by the Russian attack.

– The Ukrainian military fought bravely, he said.

More Saturday sanctions

On Saturday, a number of new sanctions were also introduced to affect Russia’s economy and ability to finance the war in Ukraine. Flanders, including the European Union, US and UK, have agreed to ban several Russian banks from Swift’s network.

Swift is an international bank owned network for transferring payment orders to and from banks in different countries.

The move would undermine the ability of Russian banks to operate globally, von der Leyen said late Saturday. This will effectively stop Russian exports and imports.

In addition, the state will:

• Prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from accessing funds he could use for war
• Crippled funds to Russia’s central bank, which would freeze transactions making it impossible for the central bank to make funds liquid.
• Work to prevent the rich Russians, the so-called oligarchs, from spending their money on Western markets.

“All these actions will undermine Putin’s ability to finance the war,” he said.

Read more about Swift, dubbed the “nuclear button of the economy,” here.

Case is being updated.