BRUSSELS: If Russia continues to intensify the problem, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has warned that the EU will take more action against it.

Following Russia's recognition of the independence of the Ukrainian areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, von der Leyen said in a statement on Tuesday that EU member states have given their political agreement to a new package of sanctions on Russia.

According to reports, the package includes a number of "calibrated measures" aimed at institutions that finance Russia's military apparatus and assist to Ukraine's destabilisation. It also prohibits trade between the two separate areas and the EU, as it did with Crimea in 2014, and restricts Russia's ability to raise cash on EU financial markets.

On Monday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed ordinances declaring the independence of two self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine's Donbass, called "the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR)" and "the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)" respectively.

Russia has done everything it can to protect Ukraine's territorial integrity by pushing for the execution of the 2015 Minsk agreement, but all of its efforts have been in vain, Putin said. The security problem arose as a result of NATO's eastward expansion, which has resulted in a loss of mutual trust with Russia, he said.

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