EU Expands Flight Ban for Russia and Adds New Tools to 14th Sanctions Package to Combat Evasion

The new EU sanctions package against Russia, which was announced on Monday, 24 June, includes an extension of the ban on flights over the EU territory and additional tools to combat the circumvention of existing restrictive measures.

In particular, the ban on landing in, taking off from and flying over the EU now also applies to aircraft flying outside the schedule if the place and time of take-off or landing, for example, during a flight to a holiday destination or business meeting, is actually determined by Russian individuals or legal entities, structures or bodies.

In addition, upon request of the EU authorities, operators are obliged to provide them with information on unscheduled flights, including information about the owners of the aircraft and possibly their passengers.

The new EU sanctions package also extends the ban on the carriage of goods by road in the EU, including transit, to EU carriers with a 25% or more shareholding by Russian individuals or legal entities.

Additionally, EU parent companies will have to make every effort to ensure that their subsidiaries in third countries do not engage in any activity that may lead to the outcome that the sanctions seek to prevent.

Also, in order to counter the re-export of military goods found in Ukraine or critical to the development of Russian military systems, it was decided that EU operators selling such goods to third countries will have to implement special mechanisms capable of identifying, assessing and mitigating the risks of re-export to Russia.

EU operators transferring industrial know-how for the production of military goods to commercial partners in third countries will now have to include clauses in their contracts to ensure that such know-how is not used for goods destined for Russia.

The EU Council added 61 new companies to the list of those directly supporting Russia's military-industrial complex. They will be subject to stricter export restrictions on dual-use goods and technologies, as well as goods and technologies that could contribute to the technological improvement of the Russian defence and security sector.

In addition, the new EU sanctions include measures against Russian liquefied natural gas. The new package also targets tankers belonging to Russia's oil "shadow fleet" and provides additional tools to combat the circumvention of existing restrictive measures.

As The Gaze previously reported, the EU will be able to buy weapons for Ukraine despite Hungary's veto.