US President Barack Obama is ordering visa restrictions on officials for “threatening the sovereignty of Ukraine” and signing an order for further sanctions on Moscow.  He’s stepping up pressure over Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

The White House did not specify which or how many officials were subject to the visa bans nor did he reference their nationality.  The targets are described as “officials and individuals” who are deemed “complicit in threatening the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.

President Obama’s Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “Depending on how the situation develops, the United States is prepared to consider additional steps and sanctions as necessary.”

The American order followed the European Union's action to freeze the assets of 18 people held responsible for embezzling state funds in Ukraine, including ousted president Viktor Yanukovich, his son. and some of his closest allies.

In Brussels, European Union leaders were divided over the response to Russia’s presence in Crimea.  Some members, such as Baltic States that were once under Soviet domination, pressed for harsher measures against Moscow.  But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned against “slamming all the doors shut” by imposing sanctions on Russia over the Crimea crisis that will endanger other important areas of cooperation.

“Considering that we need one another, including Russia, to settle conflicts, such as those with Iran or in Syria, a division over the Ukraine conflict would mean the international cooperation that we need would be suspended for a long period or even broken off,” Steinmeier said, adding that he is “of the view that one has to watch out in Brussels that one doesn't slam all the doors shut, where we might have perhaps found we could have gone through them.”