BRUSSELS, Belgium — Restrictions against Russian refineries and oil export terminals loom large in a new set of EU draft sanctions listings, first presented to EU ambassadors on Oct. 21 and seen by the Kyiv Independent.
The EU's diplomatic arm, the EEAS, "proposed 117 additional listings targeting sectors which raise revenue for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, such as the financial sector, energy sector, and the Russian shadow fleet," an Irish Council Presidency spokesperson told journalists.
The draft document lists 12 individuals and 105 entities, which, if adopted, would subject them to a transaction ban with the EU and a freeze on any assets they hold in the bloc. Being a sanctioned entity can also make it hard to do business with companies in third countries, which don't want to risk their own commercial ties with the EU.
A key focus of the latest proposed sanctions listings is Russia's oil processing, refining, and exporting capacity, with 31 listings spanning the breadth of Russia, from St. Petersburg to Sakhalin.
The EEAS' proposal of those listings is especially timely, coming barely two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to import diesel — itself a refined oil product — from Russia.
That deal, and the U.S.' wider attitude change to Ukraine, led to widespread condemnation from EU leaders when they met in Brussels on Oct. 15-16.
"We see that we have to pressure the aggressor to stop the war, not the victim to surrender," said the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who oversees the bloc's sanctions.
The other listings included 52 banking and financial institutions, two entities that process Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG), and a steel company operating from Russian-occupied territory in Donetsk Oblast.
The EU has also sanctioned entities in several third countries that have been helping Moscow evade sanctions, 12 in the United Arab Emirates alone, and other listings for companies based in Oman, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Seychelles.
Also likely to be of interest are some of the 12 individuals sanctioned by the EU, which have ties to e-commerce platforms Ozon and Wildberries, which have been trading in products that help Russia's military effort, as well as Moscow's internet search engine Yandex.
All three companies have been targets of successful Ukrainian military strikes.
Finally, the EU is preparing to apply sanctions to a further 15 companies belonging to Russia's military-industrial complex, and to remove one entity in a third country because "the entity has ceased the activity which led to its inclusion in the list and has committed to refrain from any such activity in the future," reads the EU's draft legal text.
The next step is for the listings to be scrutinized by sanctions experts appointed by the 27 EU countries. After that, the list returns to ambassadors for approval, and then to ministers for a final vote.