EU restrictive measures relating to actions in Ukraine

Updated as of 24 June 2024

Given the developing situation in Ukraine, Central Bank of Ireland will publish details of new restrictive measures/sanctions that are adopted in this regard, as well as any associated EU Guidance, on this page. All natural and legal persons must comply with EU Regulations relating to financial sanctions as soon as they are adopted. While sanctions are applicable to all natural and legal persons, given the nature of the activities carried out by credit and financial institutions, some additional guidance is provided below for this sector.

The European Commission has a dedicated webpage, entitled Sanctions adopted following Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine , which contains information on the various sanctions adopted, including Frequently Asked Questions. The page is regularly updated. Therefore, you are encouraged to regularly visit this page for the latest information, in particular prior to contacting the Central Bank with queries relating to sanctions adopted. 

In addition, the EU Sanctions Map provides comprehensive details of all EU sanctions regimes and their corresponding legal acts, including those regimes adopted by the UN Security Council and transposed as EU level.

Guidance for Firms

There is a legal obligation to comply with EU Council Regulations relating to financial sanctions as soon as they are adopted.  Once a person, entity or body has been listed under an EU restrictive measure regime, they are known as a “Designated Person”. On listing, there is a legal obligation not to transfer funds or make funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to that Designated Person.  Accounts, funds or other assets belonging to a Designated Person should be frozen without delay, so that they cannot be made available, directly or indirectly, to that Designated Person.

Firms must ensure that they are compliant with financial sanctions at all times. This includes carrying out ongoing monitoring of transactions and customers.  To ensure compliance with EU financial sanctions, it is necessary to monitor the EU Financial Sanctions lists. The European Commission maintains a consolidated list of individuals, groups and organisations subject to EU financial sanctions.

What to do if a match or "hit" occurs

In the event that a match or a “hit” occurs against a Designated Person, Firms must immediately freeze the account(s) and/or stop the transaction(s) and report the “hit” to the Central Bank by email to [email protected], using the Sanctions Return Form.

For further information on sanctions reporting, please visit the Central Bank’s dedicated Sanctions Reporting webpage.

The 15th package of sanctions against Russia was adopted on 16 December 2024. 

The focus of this package is to keep cracking down on Russia's shadow fleet, as well as combating sanctions' circumvention. It also includes substantial individual and entity listings related to the Russian military-industrial complex and increases the legal protection of EU Central Securities Depositories (EU CSDs). With this package, the EU has, for the first time, imposed ‘fully-fledged' sanctions (travel ban, asset freeze and prohibition to make economic resources available) on various Chinese actors.

The package includes:

  • 84 additional listings which will be subject to assets freeze measures. This includes 54 individuals and 30 entities, responsible for actions undermining the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.
  • A new derogation has been introduced in response to increasing litigation and counter measures in Russia that enable certain designated entities and their underlying clients to seize assets of central securities depositories in the EU that are held in Russia, without the prior consent of those depositories. EU CSDs can ask competent authorities of the Member States to unfreeze cash balances so that EU CSDs can use those cash balances that are no longer due to designated entities to meet the legal obligations of those depositories towards their participants.
  • Introduces liability protection for EU CSDs and their directors/employees who are managing immobilised assets in line with the Restrictive Measures, unless it is proved that the action was a result of negligence.  This is an alignment with protections which already exist under EU Regulation 269/2014.
  • To combat recent Russian counter measures involving Russian Court Orders and Presidential Decrees, a prohibition has been introduced on the recognition or enforcement in the Union of injunctions, orders, judgments or other court decisions pursuant to or in relation to Article 248 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation or equivalent Russian legislation.
  • 32 additional entities are added to the list of natural or legal persons, entities and bodies set out in Annex IV, the list includes certain entities in third countries other than Russia that indirectly contribute to Russia’s military and technological enhancement through the circumvention of export restrictions, including on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or missiles.
  • Introduces further shadow fleet measures with the addition of further vessels to the list of vessels set out in Annex XVI to Decision 2014/512/CFSP, on which a ban from Member States’ ports and locks, as well as a ban on the provision of a broad range of services related to maritime transport, are imposed.
  • This new package also extends some existing derogations that enable EU operators to divest from Russia. While none of these derogations are new provisions, they will give more time to our companies to exit Russia.

A complete overview of the new package is available here

Important information regarding EU restrictive measures, relating to actions in Ukraine