The European Union has imposed sanctions on some of Russia’s most important shipyards, including major submarine builders, naval ship-repair facilities and yards involved in commercial vessel construction, as part of a sweeping expansion of restrictions targeting the country’s military-industrial complex. The new sanctions, adopted Monday, add 826 Russian companies and 743 executives to the EU sanctions list, the largest single expansion since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Among the companies named are Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg, Sevmash in Severodvinsk, the Amur Shipbuilding Plant in Russia’s Far East and Severnaya Verf in St. Petersburg. The designations also include the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center, a major facility for submarine maintenance and modernization, and the Dalzavod Ship Repair Center in Vladivostok, which supports Russia’s Pacific Fleet. Vyborg Shipyard, Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard, the Nevsky Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant and Vympel Shipbuilding Plant are also included, extending the restrictions to facilities involved in both military and civilian vessel construction.
The sanctions impose asset freezes and prohibit EU persons and companies from making funds or economic resources available to the designated entities. They do not, by themselves, constitute a blanket prohibition on Russian-built vessels or commercial ships constructed at the affected yards. According to the EU implementing regulation, the companies were identified by the Russian government as belonging to its military-industrial complex and eligible for federal subsidies supporting employee housing costs, and the EU cited those links as grounds for the designations.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said more than half of the nearly 1,600 new listings are connected to the production chain for ballistic missiles. The measures are distinct from the EU’s sanctions targeting Russia’s shadow fleet, which have focused on vessels involved in transporting Russian oil and circumventing Western restrictions; the new designations instead target Russia’s shipbuilding and naval maintenance infrastructure.