Europe's top court upholds EU sanctions against Russia's Rosneft

Sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russian companies such as its largest oil group Rosneft are valid, Europe's top court said on Tuesday.

"The restrictive measures adopted by the Council in response to the crisis in Ukraine against certain Russian undertakings, including Rosneft, are valid," the European Court of Justice said.

The bloc slapped sanctions on Russia after it annexed Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and stepped them up as Moscow went on to support a separatist rebellion in Ukraine's industrial east.

(Reporting by Julia Fioretti, writing by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel)