The European Union is mulling introducing secondary sanctions in an effort to prevent third countries from hel
ping Russia circumvent the bloc’s existing punitive measures against Moscow, according to people familiar with the matter.
The EU is working on a 19th package of sanctions that’s for now mainly expected to focus on Russian kidnappers of Ukrainian children, an issue that’s resonate
d with US President Donald Trump when he last met European leaders in the White House to discuss the war.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Copenhagen later this week and
are expected to have a discussion on a range of options, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, declined to comment.
The ministers are expected to discuss the use of the so-called anti-circumvention tool that was adopted in 2023
but that hasn’t been used yet. This tool can prohibit the export, supply or transfer of certain goods to third countries that are considered to aid sanctions circumvention.
The ministers are also considering further sanctions that target Russia’s oil and gas and financial sectors
, as well as further restrictions of import and export of Russian goods, said the people. These discussions will be held in
an informal format and won’t specifically be focused on the new sanctions package.
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The EU has historically been averse to imposing secondary sanctions, particularly given recent criticism from th
e Trump administration about the policy. But as the EU prepares the new package of sanctions against Russia — which
should be ready in a matter of weeks — it appears to have arrived at the limits of what it can do with sanctions targeting Russia directly.
Trump has imposed so-called secondary tariffs to punish India’s purc
hases of Russian crude, considered to be a form of tacit support for Moscow’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
While European allies have asked Trump to impose additional m
easures on Russia, the US has so far held off passing a wider ranging bill of “bone crushing” sanctions.
Photo: European Union flags at the Berlaymont building of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. Photographer: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg