EU’s Russia sanctions to target companies in Vietnam and Turkey

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The EU has prepared sanctions against Vietnamese, Turkish and Serbian companies that it accuses of helping Russia evade embargoes, in the bloc’s 17th package of measures against Moscow since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The proposed sanctions also target 149 oil tankers in the Kremlin’s “shadow fleet” and about 60 individuals and companies in Russia and China, four people familiar with the initiative told the Financial Times.

The measures are aimed at maintaining pressure on Moscow while Europe fears US President Donald Trump might walk away from Ukraine, after yielding little success so far in his efforts to strike a ceasefire.

Some senior EU officials also see the proposal as a way to test the appetite of Hungary’s pro-Russian premier Viktor Orbán to agree to additional sanctions, ahead of a critical vote in July where Budapest could end all economic measures against Moscow.

Hungary has previously threatened to veto the twice-yearly rollover of all EU sanctions against Moscow, before ultimately agreeing to their continuation. But diplomats say Trump has strengthened Orbán’s resolve to use his veto after the US president called for peace in Ukraine and for renewed economic ties with Russia.

The package, which was shared with EU capitals on Tuesday and will be discussed by ambassadors on Wednesday, must be approved by all 27 EU members and could be amended.

Recent EU sanctions packages have mainly sought to tighten existing economic restrictions and close avenues for evading those measures through third countries.

The 17th package targets more than 20 new companies deemed to be helping Russia evade sanctions, the officials said. About a dozen are in third countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Serbia, Vietnam and Uzbekistan. It would be the first time a Vietnamese company has been sanctioned by Brussels for aiding the Kremlin.

Serbia, an EU accession country, has been strongly condemned by Brussels and many member states for refusing to align with its sanctions on Russia.

The package also adds several dual-use goods that have potential military applications, such as chemicals and machine tool components, to a list of banned exports to Russia. It calls for an exemption for Russia’s Sakhalin Project, an oil and gas supplier crucial to Japan, to be extended until June 2026.