The European Union has imposed sanctions on some of Russia’s biggest shipyards, including key submarine builders, naval repair facilities and commercial vessel manufacturers, in its largest expansion of sanctions listings since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Adopted on Monday, the measures add 826 Russian companies and 743 executives to the EU sanctions list, targeting industries linked to the country’s military-industrial complex.
Among the shipyards affected are Admiralty Shipyards and Severnaya Verf in St Petersburg, Sevmash in Severodvinsk and Amur Shipbuilding Plant in Russia’s Far East.
The list also includes Zvezdochka Ship Repair Centre, which specialises in submarine maintenance and modernisation, and Dalzavod Ship Repair Centre in Vladivostok, which supports Russia’s Pacific Fleet.
Other targets include Vyborg Shipyard, Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard, Nevsky Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant, Vympel Shipbuilding Plant and several repair facilities, including the 13th Ship Repair Plant in Sevastopol.
The move strikes at an industry serving both military and civilian markets. Sevmash is central to Russia’s nuclear submarine programme, while Admiralty Shipyards builds conventional submarines.
Severnaya Verf constructs naval surface combatants, and Amur Shipbuilding Plant produces vessels for the Pacific Fleet. Vyborg Shipyard has also built icebreakers and offshore vessels.
The sanctions freeze the designated entities’ assets and prohibit EU individuals and companies from providing them with funds or economic resources.
However, they do not impose a blanket ban on Russian-built vessels or commercial ships produced at the affected yards.
According to the EU’s implementing regulation, the companies were identified by the Russian government as part of its military-industrial complex and eligible for federal subsidies to help cover employees’ housing costs. The bloc cited these links as grounds for the sanctions.
The shipyard designations form part of a broader crackdown on Russia’s weapons industry.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said more than half of the nearly 1,600 new listings were linked to the production chain for ballistic missiles.
“This is the single largest expansion of our sanctions list since Russia started its war,” Kallas said, adding that the measures would make it “significantly harder, slower and more expensive” for Russia to produce weapons used against Ukrainians.
The latest restrictions differ from the EU’s measures against Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, which target vessels suspected of transporting Russian oil in ways that circumvent Western restrictions. Instead, the new sanctions focus on the industrial infrastructure behind Russia’s naval power, targeting facilities involved in building, repairing and maintaining military vessels.
The regulation was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 12 October and entered into force the same day.