PRESS RELEASE : Press statement by President von der Leyen on the ninth package of sanctions against Russia [December 2022]

The press release issued by the European Commission on 7 December 2022.

Russia continues to bring death and devastation to Ukraine. It is deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, seeking to paralyse the country at the beginning of the winter.

We stand by Ukraine and we are making Russia pay for its cruelty.

The eight packages of sanctions we introduced so far are already biting hard.

And today, we are stepping up the pressure on Russia, with a ninth package of sanctions.

First, we are proposing to add almost 200 additional individuals and entities to our sanctions list. This includes the Russian armed forces, as well as individual officers and defence industrial companies, members of the State Duma and Federation Council, ministers, governors and political parties, among others. This list covers key figures in Russia’s brutal and deliberate missile strikes against civilians, in the kidnapping  of Ukrainian children to Russia, and in the theft of Ukrainian agricultural products.

Second, we propose to introduce sanctions against three additional Russian banks, including a full transaction ban on the Russian Regional Development Bank to further paralyse Putin’s cash machines.

Third, we also want to impose new export controls and restrictions, particularly for dual-use goods. This includes key chemicals, nerve agents, electronics and IT components that could be used by the Russian war machine.

Fourth, we will cut Russia’s access to all sorts of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles. We propose to ban the direct exports of drone engines to Russia and the export to any third countries, such as Iran, which could supply drones to Russia.

We will also target the Russian propaganda machine by taking four additional channels off the air and all other distribution platforms.

And we propose further economic measures against the Russian energy and mining sector, including a ban on new mining investments in Russia.

This package comes on top of the full EU import ban on Russian seaborne oil that came into force this week. As well as the global oil price cap agreed between the G7.

The international cooperation against Russia’s war has never been stronger.

We stand united and firm.