The European Union is weighing new sanctions that would hit some €5 billion ($5.3 billion) in trade with Russia, including export restrictions on welding machines, chemicals and further technologies used for military purposes, according to people familiar with the matter.

In Ukraine, the government published a decree aimed at encouraging businesses to sign up for electricity imports now to ease strains on the grid after last winter saw rolling blackouts amid Russian attacks. The measure would grant priorities during outages to companies that bring in certain volumes of supply.