A top European court on Wednesday rejected an appeal by Russian missile-maker Almaz-Antey against EU sanctions imposed for its role in the Ukraine conflict.
As the crisis deepened in 2014, the European Union imposed asset freezes and travel bans on Russian and Ukrainian individuals and entities held responsible for supporting pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The Luxembourg-based General Court, second only to the European Court of Justice, said it dismissed the appeal because Almaz-Antey had not shown the EU acted disproportionately.
As an arms manufacturer for the Russian government, which "itself supplies weapons to the separatists in Eastern Ukraine, Almaz-Antey materially supports actions which undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine," the court said in a statement.
In July 2014, a Malaysian Airlines jet with 298 people on board was shot down over rebel-held territory by what Almaz-Antey later said was likely to have been a BUK missile system similar to those it had stopped making in 1999.
Who ordered the attack remains unknown, with Russia and Ukraine blaming each other.
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