BRUSSELS, July 12 (Reuters) - The European Union targeted Ukrainian separatist leader Aleksandr Borodai and 10 other rebels with travel bans and asset freezes on Saturday, avoiding fresh sanctions on Russian business to avoid antagonising its main energy supplier.
The EU said Borodai was "responsible for the separatist 'governmental' activities of the so-called 'government of the Donetsk People's Republic'", referring to the city where the military is fighting pro-Russian separatists.
Borodai, a 41-year-old Russian citizen, told a news conference in May he was a political advisor who helped Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March and then moved to eastern Ukraine to help separatists there. He denies any links to Moscow. (Reporting by Robin Emmott, editing by John Stonestreet)
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