The European Union issued the first set of sanctions against Belarus - the first was introduced on 27 February, which banned certain categories of Belarusian items in the EU, including timber, steel, mineral fuels and tobacco.[36] After the Lithuanian prime minister proposed disconnecting Belarus from SWIFT,[37] the European Union, which does not recognise Lukashenko as the legitimate President of Belarus, started to plan an extension of the sanctions already issued against Russian entities and top officials to its ally.[38]