The European Union proposed a 21st sanctions package against Russia on June 9 that would ban transactions on 11 crypto platforms and extend the bloc’s crypto restrictions deeper into third countries suspected of helping Moscow dodge existing measures. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced the proposals in a thread on X, describing a package of more than 170 listings—the largest her office has put forward in over two years—spanning the financial sector, energy, and drone production. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the wider package in Brussels the same day.

“Brick by brick, we are collapsing the foundations of Russia’s war economy,” Kallas wrote.

EU Crypto Restrictions Reach Beyond Russia’s Borders

The crypto measures form one arm of a sweeping assault on Russia’s financial sector. The package would freeze the assets of close to 90 banks and impose additional transaction bans on more than 30 banks in Russia and other third countries, in what Kallas called a heavy blow to Russia’s financial system.

Alongside the 11 blacklisted platforms, the bloc would tighten its existing ban on crypto-asset services to certain third countries and add new designations. Von der Leyen went further, saying the package would introduce, for the first time, the possibility of a full third-country ban on crypto-asset services—putting entire jurisdictions at risk of exclusion if they host platforms that help Russia evade sanctions.

The proposal escalates the 20th package adopted in April, which imposed a total sectoral ban on crypto providers and platforms established in Russia alongside prohibitions on the digital ruble and the RUBx stablecoin. Foreign rails have since absorbed much of the displaced activity, with the ruble-backed A7A5 stablecoin clearing more than $110 billion in transactions despite sanctions, largely through Grinex, the successor to the disrupted Garantex exchange.

Energy, Shadow Fleet and Combatants Face New Measures

Energy revenue forms the package’s other priority, with Kallas announcing a temporary freeze of the Russian oil price cap and new restrictions on the resale of LNG tankers to Russia.

“Energy sales keep Russia’s war machine running. We want to cut this cashflow,” she wrote.

The package sanctions 30 new shadow fleet vessels and, for the first time, exposes the ships that service them to sanctions of their own. Two Russian ports and four airports would also face transaction bans.

More than 30 designations target drone manufacturing, with export controls on 50 companies based in China, Türkiye, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the UAE, and India. Kallas also proposed a comprehensive visa ban for ex-combatants of the Russian armed forces and its proxy groups, arguing that Europe’s door should not stay open to those who fought for Moscow. The package requires unanimous approval from all 27 member states, arriving weeks after the UK sanctioned HTX in its first use of Regulation 17A against a crypto exchange.