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For the first time ever, the EU is using its power to sanction people and organisations with asset freezes and travel bans for those suspected of cyberattacks organised in Russia and China, Euronews reports.

Six people and three entities are going to be sanctioned over a number of high-profile attacks, including one in 2018 against the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) based in The Hague. Sanctions include a travel ban and assets freeze.

"These targeted measures will ensure that those individuals and entities are held accountable for their actions. They send a strong message to the world that we will not tolerate such cyber-attacks: we have the tools to protect ourselves and the determination to use them," the EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on his blog.

The move to use the full force of the EU's new powers, agreed back in May 2019, was welcomed by the Dutch foreign minister on Twitter.