EU’s top court upholds sanctions against Russia’s VTB over Ukraine turmoil

WARSAW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union’s top court on Thursday upheld sanctions against Russia’s second-largest bank VTB , dismissing the lender’s appeal against the restrictive measures the bloc had first imposed in 2014 over the turmoil in Ukraine.

The sanctions restrict the bank’s access to some financial transactions and to capital markets in the EU.

The EU imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Kyiv in 2014 and stepped them up as Moscow went on to back rebels fighting government troops in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people to date.

(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Kate Abnett; editing by David Evans)