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Sanctions adopted following Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine

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Slava Ukraini

One year of Ukrainian resistance

What the EU is doing and why

Since March 2014, the EU has progressively imposed restrictive measures (sanctions) against Russia, initially in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol and the deliberate destabilisation of Ukraine. On 23 February 2022, the EU expanded the sanctions in response to the recognition of the non-government controlled areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine and the ordering of Russian armed forces into those areas. After 24 February 2022, in response to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, the EU massively expanded the sanctions. It added a significant number of persons and entities to the sanctions list, and adopted unprecedented measures with the aim of significantly weakening Russia's economic base, depriving it of critical technologies and markets, and significantly curtailing its ability to wage war.

In parallel, the EU sanctions regime concerning Belarus has been expanded in response to that country’s involvement in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and in addition to the sanctions already in place in view of the situation in Belarus. This sanctions regime consists of an array of financial, economic and trade measures.

The respective Council Regulations identified below are addressed to all persons, entities and bodies under EU jurisdiction, for which they create legal obligations.

EU sanctions map

The EU sanctions map provides comprehensive details of all EU sanctions regimes and their corresponding legal acts, including a whistleblower tool, a consolidated list of travel bans and a consolidated list of financial sanctions.

Check the EU sanctions map

Timeline: measures adopted in 2022-2023

Overview of sanctions in place

Frequently asked questions

Member States are responsible for implementing sanctions. The Commission oversees the implementation by Member States and is working closely with them in order to support them on implementation, provide information to stakeholders, and engage in a dialogue to collect feedback on how sanctions are implemented.

The Commission has published guidance and extensive FAQs (over 500) covering a broad range of topics and continues to update them, in order to assist stakeholders on how to apply the sanctions packages.

Check the FAQs