The EU has drafted the legal basis to slap visa bans on Russian soldiers, but won’t decide when to make it operational until after the long summer holiday break – when many Russians go to France, Italy and Spain.
The battle over this 21st sanctions round lays bare a new fault line in Europe’s Russia policy, with Greece and Austria securing sensitive carve-outs.
With an EU-wide LNG embargo looming in 2027, the battle over a Danish shipyard has become a test of whether Europe can close loopholes that keep Russian gas flowing.
EU foreign ministers have imposed a ban on Sudan’s gold trade in a bid to curb financing of its civil war – but they ignored MEPs’ demands to designate a militia accused of genocide as a terror group.
By quietly rerouting sanctioned timber through China, Kazakhstan and EU neighbours, Russian suppliers are testing whether Europe’s fractured enforcement can uphold its own wartime embargoes.
In a recent study with Sciences Po Paris, we used economic modelling to explore a simple counterfactual: what if the West had issued a credible threat of strong sanctions in 2021, when Russian troops began massing on Ukraine’s borders?
EU member states approved a new package of sanctions against Russia and unlocked €90bn in funding for Ukraine, with disbursements expected to begin by June at the latest.
Hungarian foreign affairs minister Péter Szijjártó, in a conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, said that Budapest and Bratislava would help Russians get off the EU sanctions list. Meanwhile, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also lobbied Robert Fico in a letter on behalf of a Russian oligarch.
Russian oil deliveries to Hungary jumped from 61 percent of its imports in 2021 to 93 percent in 2025 despite the Ukraine war.
Amid concerns about waning US aid and shortages of air‑defence systems for Ukraine linked to the Iran war, there are expected to be renewed calls during Monday’s foreign affairs council meeting for increased bilateral military support for Kyiv alongside the stalled €90bn in EU funding that Hungary is currently blocking.
With EU foreign ministers ready to discuss possible sanctions on Rwanda at a meeting in Brussels next Monday, DR Congo communications minister Patrick Muyaya says the EU should match US sanctions over the eastern DR Congo invasion and reconsider its controversial minerals deal with Rwanda.
The US Treasury imposed sanctions under its Global Magnitsky Act in the wake of the Rwandan army and the M23 militia group capturing the city of Ulvira in the South Kivu province of eastern DR Congo last year
Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline has halted, sparking tensions between Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine, although Brussels says supplies remain stable. In contrast, Kyiv builds cyber ties with other EU countries while Baltic states bolster border defences.
Ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov warned that achieving peace with Russia requires real pressure on Moscow, cautions against normalising the war or engaging in ‘premature’ EU talks with Moscow, and sets the case for full EU membership.
Iran’s population today exceeds 93 million— and is hosts six million Afghan refugees.
In the event of regional war, both Iranians and displaced Afghans would inevitably seek routes toward Europe.
Hungary and Slovakia risk delaying new EU sanctions on Russia, but Malta is falling into line, less than a week before Europe’s Ukraine-anniversary deadline.
The Swiss-based International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation (FIDE) rejects allegations that its president, Arkady Dvorkovich, backed Russia’s invasion or organised events in occupied Ukraine, arguing claims misrepresent his honorary CFR role and federation decisions.
Russia’s world chess king and Asian sanctions-busters feature in the draft new round of EU measures, which also cover chemical weapons, killer drones, mercenaries in Belize, crypto, and salt.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she didn’t know “what comes next” with US claims on Greenland, but Europe remained sure Russia was a long-term threat.
The EU decisionmakers have not updated the North Korea sanctions list in almost two years, even though the DPRK is fighting a war in Europe.