The European Union has approved its most sweeping sanctions package against Russia in four years, broadening restrictions on banks, crypto exchanges, oil infrastructure and military supply chains in an effort to tighten economic pressure on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.
The new measures approved by the Council of the European Union on Thursday target not just Russian companies but also the international networks that EU officials say have helped the country bypass existing sanctions.
One of the biggest additions this time is a clampdown on the crypto sector. The EU has blacklisted 14 cryptocurrency exchanges from Georgia, Panama, the United Arab Emirates, the Marshall Islands, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus for allegedly assisting Russia in evading financial sanctions.
EU gains power to ban crypto providers across entire countries
The package also includes a new legal instrument allowing the EU to impose a general ban on crypto service providers operating in an entire third country for the first time, if authorities find they are facilitating sanctions evasion.
The financial measures far exceed digital assets. The EU froze the assets of 94 banks and financial institutions and extended transaction bans to 33 other Russian banks, a bank in Kyrgyzstan and three other non-Russian financial institutions that regulators say have helped Russia access the global financial system.
The sanctions also targeted Russia’s energy exports, a major source of revenue for the country’s economy.
The EU also added 41 more oil tankers to its blacklist of vessels suspected of being part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet”, ships used to carry oil outside Western sanctions, bringing the total number of sanctioned vessels to 673. The new rules also apply to companies that provide fuel and logistical support to such ships.
Meanwhile, the bloc postponed automatic revisions to the Russian oil price cap until July 2027, due to the volatility of global energy markets.
The package also targets more of Russia’s oil industry, sanctioning 18 entities and one individual, including three Russian refineries and a large refinery in Belarus.
EU targets third-country refineries handling Russian crude
The EU has also set up a mechanism to penalise refineries in third countries that process Russian crude oil. One refinery in Kulevi, Georgia, has already been named under the new rules with restrictions to be applied in six months.
Another major focus was military logistics. The bloc sanctioned 56 entities connected to Russia’s defence industry, 37 of which are linked to the production of long-range drones. It also expanded export controls on 51 companies in China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and the UAE suspected of supplying goods that could support Russia’s military.
The latest package is a sign of the EU’s growing focus on closing loopholes rather than simply adding new sanctions.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has turned to alternative financial networks, intermediary companies and overseas trading partners to adapt to successive rounds of Western restrictions. The EU is targeting those channels, including cryptocurrency exchanges, in a bid to make it harder for Russia to bypass existing measures and fund its war effort.
