The European Commission has announced its proposals for the 8th package of sanctions against Russia due to the escalation of the war in Ukraine – the list of sanctioned individuals was extended, new trade restrictions, Russian oil price cap and other sanctions were introduced.

President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said this a press statement in Brussels on Wednesday.

"Last week Russia has escalated the invasion of Ukraine to a new level. The sham referenda organized in the territories that Russia occupied are an illegal attempt to grab land and to change international borders by force. The mobilization and Putin's threats to use nuclear weapons are further steps on the escalation path. We do not accept the sham referenda and any kind of annexation in Ukraine. And we are determined to make the Kremlin pay for this further escalation. Today, we are together proposing a new package of biting sanctions against Russia. The first part concerns the listing of individuals and entities," she said.

The second part of the sanctions concerns trade restrictions, the President of the European Commission said.

"By that we isolate and hit Russia's economy even more. We propose sweeping new import bans on Russian products. This will keep Russian products out of the European market and deprive Russia of an additional EUR 7 billion in revenues," she said.

In addition, the European Commission proposes to extent the list of products that cannot be exported to Russia.

"The aim is here to deprive the Kremlin's military complex of key technologies," von der Leyen said.

For example, this includes "additional aviation items or electronic components and specific chemical substances."

"These new export bans will additionally weaken Russia's economic basis and will weaken its capacity to modernize," she said.

In addition, the European Commission proposes additional bans on providing European services to Russia and the prohibition of EU nationals to sit on governing bodies of Russian state-owned enterprises.

"Russia should not benefit from European knowledge and expertise," she said.

Von der Leyen also said that in the new package of sanctions the European Commission is laying "a legal basis for the oil price cap".