Sanctions against Russia and Belarus

Since the beginning of the war, sanctions have been adopted in close coordination with our international partners and allies, including the United Kingdom, the United States and the other G7 countries, which are implementing their own sanctions regimes.

Types of sanctions

The European Union has adopted several types of sanctions since 2014.
In 2014, the illegal annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of eastern Ukraine by Russia led to the adoption of initial European Union sanctions against Russia. Concerning Belarus, the sanctions regime was stepped up in 2020 following the sham presidential election, and again in 2021 in response to persistent repression, the forced landing of a Ryanair flight and the country’s orchestration of a migration crisis with the EU.

Since 24 February 2022, when Russia started an unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Union has imposed 16 packages of sanctions on Russia, in coordination with its international partners. Specific sanctions have also been imposed on Belarus because of its growing involvement in the war. This is a long-term engagement: on 24 February 2025, the European Union adopted another sanctions package.

These packages include export restrictions (dual-use and advanced technology items, vehicles, machines and construction materials), import restrictions on certain items generating significant revenue for Russia (including oil, coal and diamonds), measures to combat circumvention of sanctions, and various bans aiming to protect Europe’s critical infrastructure and information space.

These sanctions are already having and will continue to have a significant impact on the Russian economy, undermining the country’s continued war effort.

Moreover, on 8 October 2024, the European Union also adopted a new sanctions framework against those behind Russia’s destabilization activities, with a first package imposed on 16 December 2024. The aim of these sanctions is to counter Russia’s hybrid operations, which endanger democracy, the rule of law, the stability and security of the European Union and the interests of both its Member States and third countries.

Russia

The European Union’s sanctions against Russia, which aim to increase the cost of the war for the Russian regime and to counter its hybrid attacks, are built on several pillars:

1. Individual sanctions, to pressure political and economic backers of the Russian regime, the Russian military-industrial complex and leaders of the regions that are not controlled by the Ukrainian government – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, illegally annexed by Russia, and those responsible for the illegal deportation and “military re-education” of Ukrainian children. These sanctions include asset freezes and an EU entry ban and target more than 2,400 Russian individuals and entities, including President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The sanctions are also aimed at those behind Russia’s destabilization activities who are present in both European territory and third countries.

2. Massive financial sanctions, to dry up the capacity to finance the Russian economy, including:

• A ban on transactions concerning the assets and reserves of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and Russian sovereign funds;
• Restrictions on purchases of Russian sovereign debt and financial flows from Russia;
• Exclusion of certain Russian banking institutions from the SWIFT secure messaging network, including Sberbank and VTB, the country’s largest and second-largest banks.

3. Economic sanctions aimed at key sectors of the Russian economy, including energy, transport, aviation, the defence industry, commodities and services.

These measures include bans on exporting certain goods to Russia in key sectors of its economy (including many industrial machines and items of equipment and electronic components and equipment, in addition to restrictions on exports in the military sector) and restrictions on the supply of services to companies, on the supply of software, and on the supply of spare parts and services in the aviation sector, as well as a ban on any investment in the Russian energy sector.

Restrictions have also been adopted regarding imports of any goods that generate significant revenue for Russia, including on import, purchase or direct or indirect transfer of diamonds from Russia. The energy sector, which is strategic for financing Russia’s war, is particularly targeted.

The European Union prohibits the export to Russia of goods and technologies for the refining of oil or gas liquefaction, as well as any new European investment in the Russian gas sector. The European Union has also adopted a ban on Russian coal imports (since August 2022), as well as oil imports by sea from Russia (since 5 December 2022 for crude oil and 5 February 2023 for refined petroleum products), representing almost all Russia’s oil exports to EU countries. The measures adopted by the European Union also include a price cap mechanism concerning Russia’s oil sales to third countries. This cap, which rounds out the European embargo, was adopted in liaison with the Price Cap Coalition (G7, European Commission, Australia and New Zealand). It aims to reduce Russian oil export revenue while avoiding a shock to global prices. In parallel, the European Union, in coordination with its partners, has taken measures concerning many ships in Russia’s “shadow fleet”, which Russia uses to export oil above the cap. These ships are often old, insufficiently insured or uninsured against oil slicks, and flout maritime safety and security standards, representing considerable risks to the marine environment and maritime safety.

Moreover, specific restrictions have been put in place on trade and investment with entities in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that are not controlled by the Ukrainian government and that were illegally annexed by Russia on 30 September 2022.

Several exemptions have been introduced in sanctions regulations to enable, on a case-by-case basis, trade in agricultural goods, including fertilizers, from Russia to third States and to fight global food insecurity. Humanitarian clauses are included in all regimes in order to avoid obstructing aid to the Ukrainian people.

4. Measures addressing disinformation and misinformation campaigns, including suspension of broadcasting by Sputnik, Russia Today, Rossiya 24, NTV, Rossiya 1, REN TV and Pervy Kanal in the EU Member States until the end of the aggression against Ukraine.

5. Specific measures have been implemented to curb circumvention of sanctions. Entities and individuals in third countries that facilitate violation or circumvention of European sanctions may be subject to export restrictions on dual-use items for use in Russia, or asset freezes. The European Union’s exporters are also required to contractually prohibit re-exportation to Russia and re-exportation for use in Russia of high priority items (under a list jointly established by the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan) when selling, supplying, transferring or exporting to a third country, with the exception of “partner” countries. European exporters of high priority items and their subsidiaries based in third countries are also required to establish due diligence procedures to avoid these items being exported to Russia. Lastly, the EU has created an “anti-circumvention tool” to enable the Council to restrict, as a last resort, exports of certain sensitive goods and technologies to certain countries if these goods are subject to systematic circumvention via these countries to support Russia’s war effort.

Belarus

The European Union has adopted sanctions against Belarus, firstly in response to the sham presidential election in 2020, repression and human rights violations, and secondly following the Belarusian regime’s involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Moreover, on 4 June 2021, the EU imposed a ban on all Belarusian airlines entering European air space following the illegal diversion to Minsk of a Ryanair flight.

The various sanctions packages include:

1. Individual sanctions targeting political and economic backers of the Belarusian regime and figures responsible for repression of the opposition. These measures target more than 200 Belarusian individuals and almost 40 entities.
2. Financial sanctions including, in addition to pre-existing restrictions on the financing of certain Belarusian banks, a ban on transactions concerning the assets and reserves of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus and the exclusion of several Belarusian banks from the SWIFT secure messaging network.
3. Economic sanctions, particularly import bans in key sectors of the Belarusian economy, including hydrocarbons, potash, transport and commodities. These also seek to fight the circumvention via Belarus of the sanctions imposed on Russia.

Updated: February 2025