Ukraine war: EU increases pressure on Russia with latest sanctions
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivering a press statement on the proposals for the 21st package of sanctions against Russia, 9 June 2026.
© European Union, 2026 / Source: EC - Audiovisual Service / Photo: P-069974
In June, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen announced the latest package of sanctions against Russia. It includes new measures targeting financial institutions, cryptocurrency platforms and shadow fleet vessels, all of which aims to squeeze the Russian economy and weaken Putin’s war machine.
‘The conflict in the Middle East and disruptions to global energy supply chains have eased some pressure on Russia,’ says von der Leyen. ‘So, the objective of our package could not be clearer. We want to maintain the full intensity of our sanctions.’
This will be the 21st set of sanctions since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. These latest proposals follow the introduction of the EU’s long-stalled 20th sanctions package three months ago, signalling the intention to continually and incrementally increase pressure on the Russian economy. For the first time, the EU activated its anti-circumvention tool by banning the export of numerical control machines or radios to Kyrgyzstan, where there’s a high risk of products being diverted to Russia.
Yves Melin, Co-Chair of the IBA International Trade and Customs Law Committee, says the 20th sanctions package went further than previous measures regarding circumvention. He says the election of a more pro-EU government in Hungary in April is likely to have emboldened the EU. ‘Without being a game changer, it’s moving in the direction where the use of sanctions is going to be more effective,’ says Melin, a partner at Cattwyk in Brussels.
Anna Olejniczak-Michalska, legal counsel at Wardyński i Wspólnicy in Warsaw, says that the outright ban of the export of certain products to Kyrgyzstan and the increased listings of sanctioned individuals and entities helps provide predictability and clarity for businesses. ‘Before the EU was almost exclusively relying on operators to do their own due diligence. It was a huge burden and not very effective because different operators would conduct different levels of due diligence,’ she says.
Sanctions are not going to decide the end of the war on their own, but all of these things together mean that the pressure is going to stay increased on Russia
Yves Melin
Co-Chair, IBA International Trade and Customs Law Committee
The introduction of the EU’s 20th sanctions package came alongside the EU approving a €90bn loan to Ukraine, which the former Hungarian administration had blocked. Ukraine has also seen significant gains on the battlefield in 2026, which have been attributed to technological innovation and advances in its defence industry. ‘Sanctions are not going to decide the end of the war on their own, but all of these things together mean that the pressure is going to stay increased on Russia,’ says Melin.
There is still room for improvement and experts who spoke to Global Insight said the main challenge is enforcement. Enforcement of the EU’s sanctions regime is carried out by individual Member States that are responsible for investigating and prosecuting breaches and circumvention by companies and individuals. While the EU introduced a Sanctions Directive in 2024 to criminalise sanctions violations and harmonise penalties, the level of resources, expertise and political will to enforce the law varies greatly between the Member States.
Joydeep Sengupta, Head of Global Compliance and Investigations at Dentons in Paris, believes that the EU should introduce a centralised sanctions enforcement and licencing authority to handle prosecutions of sanctions violations and permissions for allowing certain transactions to take place. ‘Sanctions investigations are specialised, technical, cross-border and require significant forensic resources,’ he says. ‘Many of the small countries don’t have the expertise, resources, or capacity to handle these unilaterally, including gathering evidence across borders.’
The EU has seen a recent trend towards creating centralised criminal enforcement authorities. The European Public Prosecutors Office was introduced in 2021 to investigate and prosecute crimes that harm the finances of the EU and the Anti-Money Laundering Authority came into effect in 2024.
Łukasz Lasek, a partner at Wardyński i Wspólnicy, supports the creation of an EU-wide sanctions authority and says that it would be most practical if it focused on the most serious and complex crimes, at least initially. ‘We have seen that the European Public Prosecutors Office has been very effective with prosecutors from different Member States working within one institution on cross-border investigations,’ he says. ‘And cooperation is more efficient.’
Following the war in Iran, and the subsequent spike in oil prices, von der Leyen has stressed that this is not ‘the moment to relax sanctions on Russia’. She says enforcing the oil price cap – which prevents EU businesses from facilitating the transport of Russian crude sold above $44 a barrel – will help stabilise global markets and limit Putin’s oil revenues. Announcing proposals for the 21st package of sanctions, von der Leyen said the Commission intends to pause the oil cap adjustment mechanism until January, which follows market trends, to avoid Russia benefiting from the rise in oil prices. In March, Russia’s oil export revenues raised from $9.3bn to $19bn, according to the Kyiv School of Economics Institute.
Outside the EU, responses to the Iran war have varied, with the need to limit energy price shocks often prioritised. The US administration introduced waivers for sanctions on Russian seaborne oil already loaded onto vessels, which were heavily criticised. The UK government responded by amending a raft of sanctions on Russia, removing plans to ban imports of diesel and jet fuel made from Russian oil in third countries.