EU to expand Russia sanctions, targeting Lukoil and Rosneft

 The European Union is weighing fresh restrictions on Russia’s banking and energy sectors as part of its 19th sanctions package, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the matter.

The draft measures include sanctions against oil majors Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as Russian banks, payment systems, cryptocurrency exchanges and oil traders. The EU is also preparing to blacklist Russia-linked vessels, ban reinsurance of sanctioned tankers, and impose export bans on chemicals used by the defense industry.

For the first time, Brussels plans to apply a mechanism to counter sanctions evasion, targeting Kazakhstan for exporting industrial equipment to Russia. Additional measures may affect visa regimes, ports handling sanctioned vessels, and AI-related services with potential military use. Coordination with the United States is also expected. An official announcement is due in the coming days.