EU unveils toughest sanctions yet, targeting Russian oil trade and shadow fleet

The European Union is moving forward with a new sanctions package against Russia , and they’re not pretending it won’t have global ￰1￱ is going after oil, and not just Russia’s oil firms, but the ones outside Europe helping Moscow keep the cash ￰2￱ is the bloc’s toughest swing yet at Russia’s energy trade, and they know full well it’s going to hit the global ￰3￱ update came on Friday from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said the EU’s new measures would target what she called “third-country” actors, meaning companies not based in Europe but still trading in Russian oil. “We are now going after those who fuel Russia’s war by purchasing oil in breach of the sanctions,” Ursula said.

“We target refineries, oil traders, petrochemical companies in third countries, including China.” Around a dozen companies from China and several in India are in the crosshairs, according to the people briefed on the ￰4￱ is showing the full extent of its contempt for diplomacy and international ￰5￱ we're increasing the ￰6￱ our 19th package of sanctions covering energy, financial services and trade restrictions ↓ ￰0￱ — Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 19, 2025 Trump tells EU to ramp it up, Brussels listens This move came just days after ￰7￱ Donald Trump, now back in the White House, pushed Europe to stop dragging its ￰8￱ publicly urged EU leaders to ramp up pressure on Russia’s energy business and introduce secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil.

Now, with Ursula’s statement, it looks like Europe’s finally ￰9￱ of the early examples is Nayara Energy, which runs a big refinery in India. They’ve already been hit with EU ￰10￱ action shows Europe isn’t tiptoeing around trade ties with Asia ￰11￱ tone has shifted. They’re done protecting relationships that help Russia dodge the ￰12￱ far, the oil market hasn’t ￰13￱ stayed steady through ￰14￱ rounds of sanctions did little to cut into Russia’s ￰15￱ this one’s ￰16￱ and Gazprom Neft, two of the Kremlin’s key energy giants, are now fully blocked from doing business with EU ￰17￱ top of that, more than 100 new tankers are being sanctioned; 118 vessels from what’s known as the shadow ￰18￱ brings the EU’s blacklist to over 560 ￰19￱ are the tankers that sneak Russian oil across oceans without ￰20￱ ￰21￱ also announced the EU wants to bring forward its ban on Russian liquefied natural ￰22￱ original deadline was 2028.

Now, they want it done by January 2027. That’s not a soft push. That’s cutting off another source of Russia’s revenue stream one year earlier than ￰23￱ admits it’ll hurt, does it anyway Despite everything, the EU isn’t pretending there won’t be ￰24￱ sanctions are expected to affect parts of the global oil ￰25￱ for them , the tradeoff is worth it. They’re aiming to hit Moscow’s war machine where it hurts, even if that messes with global supply chains in the short or long ￰26￱ here’s the deal, Russia only makes up a small chunk of the global ￰27￱ 2.9% to be exact, which equals around $2 trillion.

That’s not nothing, but it’s also not enough to send the entire system into ￰28￱ sees this as a manageable risk. A big punch, but not a world-ending one. Trade-wise, Russia’s tied into global markets, but not ￰29￱ and exports make up just over 40% of its GDP. That’s more than the U.

S. (25%), less than Germany (75%). But when it comes to how integrated Russia is in supply chains, it barely ￰30￱ of all WTO and OECD countries, it’s got the smallest ￰31￱ Germany, 30% of exports are built using imported ￰32￱ Russia , that number is under 10%. The only exception is cars, where it goes up to 20%.

So even if the country crashes, suppliers in other countries wouldn’t really ￰33￱ just isn’t that deeply tied into manufacturing networks outside its borders. We’ll probably be ￰34￱ $50 free to trade crypto when you sign up to Bybit now