BRUSSELS, Feb 27: The European Union Sunday announced closing the Union's airspace to all Russian aircrafts and also ban Russian state-owned media in the EU. "We are proposing a prohibition on all Russian-owned, Russian registered or Russian-controlled aircraft. These aircraft will no more be able to land in, take off or overfly the territory of the EU," President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in televised press statements. "Our airspace will be closed to every Russian plane - and that includes the private jets of oligarchs," she stressed. "Second, in another unprecedented step, we will ban in the EU the Kremlin's media machine," she announced.

"The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, as well as their subsidiaries will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war and to sow division in our Union," said von der Leyen. "Third, we will target the other aggressor in this war - Lukashenko's regime (of Belarus). Lukashenko's regime is complicit in this vicious attack against Ukraine," she said. The EU will introduce sanctions against their most important sectors, she said, adding that "this will stop their exports of products from mineral fuels to tobacco, wood and timber, cement, iron and steel." Von der Leyen also stressed that "for the first time ever,the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country (Ukraine) that is under attack"(KUNA) -