B4Ukraine — an international coalition of 100 civil society organizations — welcomes the EU’s 19th sanctions package, including the ban on Russian LNG, a step we have long advocated for. At the same time, we call for a faster tightening of the screws on Russia’s war machine through a set of priority measures.
Key next steps for future sanctions packages and EU energy policy:
Expand ship listings to cover the entire shadow fleet: Future sanctions must include all vessels enabling Russia’s fossil fuel trade, estimated at up to
1,400 ships.
Establish new compliance mechanisms for vessel designations and sanction those who facilitate Russia’s fossil fuel trade in third countries.
Accelerate the REPowerEU plan to close loopholes and end Europe’s fossil dependence on Russia:
• Require robust National Diversification Plans: Every EU Member State must present a transparent, time-bound plan aligned with their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), focusing on energy efficiency, gas demand reduction, and renewable energy — rather than new fossil dependencies and infrastructure.
• Guarantee full traceability of gas imports: Introduce certificates of ultimate origin to prevent “whitewashing” of Russian gas passing through third countries. All gas entry points, including Strandzha 1 (Turkey–Bulgaria) and Kipoi (Turkey–Greece), must be covered.
• Permanently ban transshipments: EU companies should be prohibited from transporting or reselling Russian LNG outside the EU.
• Extend the Regulation to cover Russian oil by 1 January 2026, to also ensure a ban on the importation of Russian petrochemicals and oil products from refineries that import Russian crude oil and oil products that are further processed and exported to the EU.
• Ban EU financial institutions from facilitating payments linked to Russian fossil fuels.