Package attack: new EU sanctions against Russia are not supported by the United States
European countries cannot find the strength to admit that their sanctions policy has failed, and the EU has significantly damaged its own economy, Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Department of European Problems at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia. On May 20, the EU approved the 17th package of restrictions against the Russian Federation, which contains, in particular, sanctions against 75 individuals and legal entities, as well as 189 vessels of the "shadow fleet". Analysts emphasize that the new sanctions are declarative in nature and will not be able to seriously hit the Russian economy. In addition, despite calls from EU politicians, the United States refrained from tightening anti-Russian restrictions. Washington is conducting a dialogue with Russia on the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, while Europe is actually hindering the peace process.
How can Russia react to the next EU sanctions
The EU Council has approved a new, 17th package of restrictions against Russia. And immediately the European Commission announced work on the 18th package in order, as stated by the head of European diplomacy, Kaya Kallas, "to put more pressure on Russia" and she "also wanted peace" in Ukraine.
— The European Union cannot find the strength to admit that its sanctions policy has failed, that they have significantly damaged their own economy. And they don't want to be responsible to their population for this," Vladislav Maslennikov, director of the Department of European Affairs at the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia. — In their sanctioning frenzy, they seem important to themselves and influence something.
The automatic lifting of EU sanctions after the end of the Ukrainian conflict is unlikely to be expected, the diplomat emphasizes. Today, Hungary and Slovakia are the most consistent opponents of tougher sanctions against Russia from the EU, but their influence is not enough to completely stop the sanctions policy of Brussels.
If pragmatic leaders come to power in the EU, the paradigm of sanctions policy may change, believes Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for crimes of the Kiev regime.
—But based on the hawkish sentiments that exist today, this is not a matter of the immediate future," he told Izvestia. — There is a significant difference in approaches, which is being demonstrated today by the United States and a number of European countries that feel an existential danger from ending the bloodshed and war on the territory of Ukraine and the front-line territories of Russia.
The 17th package of sanctions is not original. 75 individuals and legal entities have been added to the new "blacklist" of the European Union. In addition to companies of the military-industrial complex (Integrated Systems Design Bureau, Unmanned Systems, Aeroburg, Elektrotyaga, UAP Hydraulics, and others), as well as organizations involved in high-tech industries (Research Institute of Space Instrumentation, Stan, and others), under sanctions Companies from the energy sector (Surgutneftegaz) and the financial sector (VSK Insurance Joint Stock Company) were hit.
The United Kingdom also contributed. London has expanded the anti-Russian sanctions list by 82 positions, including, in particular, the St. Petersburg Currency Exchange, the St. Petersburg Settlement Center and the Deposit Insurance Agency.
The EU has also imposed export restrictions on several companies that allegedly produce dual-use goods and are involved in evading sanctions. Some of them are located in third countries — Vietnam, the United Arab Emirates, Serbia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Brussels is confident.
A special feature of the new package was to be restrictions against the "shadow fleet" of the Russian Federation. Thus, the EU has imposed sanctions against 189 vessels — they are now banned from entering EU ports. The total number of sub-sanctioned vessels has reached 342. However, the new restrictions will only create temporary difficulties, said Alexander Frolov, Deputy director of the Institute of National Energy. He recalled that back in January 2025, the outgoing US administration of Joe Biden announced the introduction of similar bans — then the sanctions affected over 180 vessels. However, the Americans failed to completely stop the transportation of Russian oil to other countries.
"We can rely on the experience gained over the past five months, which demonstrates a trivial thing: those who predicted that, although a number of orders would not be completed on time, logistics would be rebuilt, and in one to three months everyone would adapt to the sanctions," Frolov said in a conversation with Izvestia.
The Russian economy as a whole managed to stop a significant part of the negative consequences after the adopted policy of accelerated EU abandonment of Russian energy resources.
"The main vector of our raw materials and processing supplies was redirected as soon as possible to new global growth centers, including in Asia," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on May 19.
At the same time, Russia is consistently switching to mutual settlements in national currencies with other countries. Thus, as of the beginning of 2025, the share of the ruble and the currencies of friendly states in the foreign trade operations of the Russian Federation amounted to about 83%.
Will Trump support new sanctions
Even before the new sanctions were approved, the Western press emphasized that they would not go far beyond the previous, 16th package. Handelsblatt wrote that the new package is perceived in Brussels rather "as a minimal consensus," given that preparations have been underway for several weeks, and a decision on it was made only in recent days. The new EU sanctions will not cause significant damage to the Russian Federation, Ivan Timofeev, program director of the Valdai International Discussion Club, said in a conversation with Izvestia.
— The EU needed to show that it was pursuing an independent policy, but they showed it to themselves. The economic effect of the 17th package will be weak, while the political effect will be zero and even inversely proportional," he said. — If the United States had supported him, he would have been stronger. American sanctions are globally more significant due to the role of the dollar.
However, US President Donald Trump is in no hurry to impose new sanctions. On the evening of May 19, he had a telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin. The parties, in particular, discussed progress on the Ukrainian settlement. Last week, for the first time in three years, the delegations of the Russian Federation and Ukraine met in Istanbul. Moscow and Kiev, in particular, agreed to continue contacts.
US President Donald Trump
According to Axios, after a conversation with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump told the leaders of European countries and Vladimir Zelensky that he does not intend to impose sanctions against Russia now, since Moscow, in his opinion, is serious about the Ukrainian settlement. Axios sources note that European leaders were "surprised and shocked" by both the statements of the US president and his emphatically respectful tone towards his Russian counterpart.
Thus, the new German Foreign Minister Johann Vadefuhl said on May 20 that Berlin expects the United States to increase pressure on Russia for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine. Earlier, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barraud called on Europe and the United States to tighten sanctions pressure on Russia in order to "strangle its economy once and for all."
— They have (European leaders. — Ed.) the calculation is to persuade Trump to his position. If Trump's position is still quite neutral, and he really deals with settlement issues, then they are openly pro-Ukrainian, and probably the main trajectory of their work is aimed at breaking Russia in everything, and they want to win Trump over to their side," Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president's press secretary, said earlier.
Negotiations between the delegations of Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, May 16, 2025
Following the meeting in Istanbul, Russia and Ukraine agreed to work on proposals for a ceasefire. It is not known when the next meeting will take place. As for the Russian-American dialogue, Moscow and Washington, in particular, are exploring the possibility of a new 9-for-9 prisoner exchange. On May 20, Reuters published a list of American individuals who may be subject to the exchange.
However, the United States may change its position on sanctions in the future under certain circumstances, experts say.
— It is necessary to prepare for the fact that sanctions are permanent. We have entered a period of confrontation with the United States and the EU," Alexei Fenenko, professor at the Faculty of World Politics at Moscow State University, told Izvestia.
Bloomberg previously reported that Washington may approve a bill imposing import duties of 500% on supplies from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other goods. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in turn, threatened: the United States does not rule out that the case may end with tougher sanctions against Russia and increased military support for Ukraine.
At the same time, we must not forget that although there are no new decisions on additional military assistance packages yet, the United States continues to supply weapons to Kiev, previously approved by Congress.
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