Sanctions over the Ukraine conflict
The EU announced broad economic sanctions against Russia on 29 July 2014 including restrictions on some Russian banks’ ability to borrow money in EU financial markets, and an arms embargo.
• A significant and expanding sanctions regime against certain Russian individuals and companies and against certain Ukrainians has been in place since March 2014
• The downing of the Malaysian Airlines flight increased tensions
• The EU announced broad economic (‘tier three’) sanctions against Russia on 29 July 2014 including restrictions on some state-controlled Russian banks’ ability to borrow money in EU financial markets and an arms embargo
• The EU also imposed a ban on the export of technology for the extraction of oil from deep sea, Arctic and shale deposits
• The US increased the range of its sanctions on the same day
• Targeted sanctions were added to in September and November 2014 and January 2015
• As violence escalated in eastern Ukraine in early 2015, both the EU and the US indicated that the option of arming the Ukrainian government remained open.
• Reaction has been mixed, with some commentators arguing that sanctions will weaken critics of nationalistic policies in Russia