EU adopts massive sanctions package against Russia: 1,646 entities targeted

This morning Redazione Zero reported on a sanctions package still in the preparation stage, indicating 1,646 targeted entities. In the afternoon the story moved from preparation to formal action: the Council of the European Union adopted the new restrictive measures against Moscow today, October 12.

The measure is structured in two separate decisions. The first targets the Russian military-industrial complex: 826 companies and 743 of their chief executives, for a total of 1,569 entities. According to the EU Council, the sanctioned companies supply components intended for the production of Russian missiles, drones and aircraft.

The second decision concerns a different front: another 77 individuals were sanctioned in connection with the September 2026 Duma elections held in Ukrainian territories temporarily occupied by Russia. Adding together the two measures, the total number of new designations adopted today rises to 1,646 people and entities — the same overall figure that this morning was indicated as the target of the package still being drafted.

The primary source for this data is the Council of the European Union itself, which publishes the updated list of sanctions measures against Russia. Alongside this is a second independent source, the Swedish outlet Europaportalen, which reports the same news of the package’s adoption.

The feature that distinguishes this package from previous ones, as described by the available sources, is its scale: the number of entities involved — more than 1,600 individuals and companies in a single round — represents the broadest measure the Union has adopted so far against the Russian military-industrial sector and institutions linked to the occupied territories. The dossier available, however, does not allow for a direct numerical comparison with the sanctions packages approved in previous months.

The decision to include both the sanctions on the industrial sector and those linked to the Duma elections in the occupied territories on the same day signals that Brussels treated the two matters as a single package, even though they rest on distinct legal bases and objectives: on one hand, weakening Russia’s military production capacity, on the other, refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the electoral process conducted in Ukrainian territories under Russian control.

What remains open, at the current state of the dossier, is how these measures fit into the broader diplomatic confrontation underway between the European Union and the United States over the management of the war in Ukraine — a context that the material available today does not allow to be reconstructed beyond the formal act of adoption.

The package adopted today therefore brings to 1,646 the overall number of entities targeted in the two decisions issued by the Council of the European Union on October 12, 2026.