The EU’s first set of restrictive measures (sanctions) against Russia was adopted in March 2014, following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol and its support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. This marked the start of a major review of EU policy on Russia. Russia’s actions during the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war had previously been condemned in statements and resolutions, but did not trigger sanctions, despite Georgia’s request for ‘smart sanctions’.
Russia’s illegal and unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was immediately met with a new set of EU sanctions, meant to be unprecedented in scale and nature, and coordinated with global partners. In what has been labelled a ‘sanctions revolution’, EU Member States have adopted 15 sanctions packages in swift succession over the nearly three years since the start of the invasion. Each package has incrementally amended and broadened the scope of sanctions regimes adopted from 2014 onwards, with the addition (in February 2022) of a new regime banning imports of goods originating in the illegally annexed territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to the EU. Furthermore, in 2024 the EU adopted two new sanctions regimes, addressing human rights violations and repression in Russia (in May 2024), and responding to Russia’s destabilising activities (‘hybrid attacks’) in Europe and beyond (in October 2024) (Annex I).
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