The EU's 15th sanctions package will include 30 legal entities from at least eight countries and 50 individuals, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions, Vladyslav Vlasiuk, said on Nov. 26.
According to Vlasiuk, "companies that help Moscow obtain critical components" will be on the sanction’s list, "including entities from Russia, Serbia, Iran, Hong Kong, China, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Thailand."
The list will also include "North Korean officials involved in the dispatch of troops to Russia," said the Ukrainian official who was involved in the package's preparations.
North Korea is believed to have sent over 10,000 troops to boost Russian forces, with the first clashes with Ukraine already reported in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
Ahead of the coming sanctions package, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called upon the EU not to sanction Chinese entities or individuals, claiming that China never supplied weapons to the parties to the conflict.
Overwhelming evidence shows that Russian military hardware, especially drones, contain parts supplied by China. Recent reports indicate that the EU obtained evidence of China's production of "lethal aid" for Russia, namely attack drones.
The upcoming package will also reportedly ban access for 45 Russian oil tankers to European ports and sanction oil transportation companies and their executives.
Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU introduced sanctions on key figures of Russia’s energy and military industry, curtailed Russia's access to Western-operated financial services, and froze Russia’s assets held in Western bank accounts.
Loopholes and malicious actors allowed countries and individuals to evade sanctions and continue doing business with Russia, necessitating the introduction of further packages and fine-tuning of the existing ones.
Dmytro Basmat
