EU sanctions aim to weaken Russia’s war economy with oil price caps, ship bans, and finance curbs—without disrupting global supply, says EU envoy to India.

In the days since President Donald Trump issued a 50-day ultimatum to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, Kremlin officials have shown little interest in coming to the negotiating table.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday predicted the Russian economy would withstand the European Union's latest sanctions package and said Moscow would intensify its strikes against Ukraine.

The European Union’s 18th sanctions package against Russia over its war in Ukraine targets Moscow’s energy and financial sectors to limit its ability to fund war in Ukraine. Key measures include a lower oil price cap, Nord Stream transaction ban, more shadow fleet sanctions, and a full ban on Russian bank deals.

A slowdown exposes the limits of the country’s wartime economy and suggests sanctions may finally be taking a toll.

Russian authorities have confiscated assets worth some $50 billion over the past three years, underscoring the scale of the transformation into a "fortress Russia" economic model during the war in Ukraine,

Since its illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has become the most sanctioned nation on Earth, and yet its economy has been remarkably resilient. In 2024, if Russian official figures are to believed, its economy outgrew those of all the G7 nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US.

Russia's new sanctions-busting method is "netting," an accounting tactic.

The air is seeping out of Russia’s sanctions-beleaguered economy, but not fast enough to impede President Vladimir Putin’s calamitous war in Ukraine or to inconvenience most Russians.

The European Union's recent sanctions on Russian oil, energy, banking and defence industries are aimed at degrading Moscow's "war economy" while preserving global oil market stability, said Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Union to India Herve Delphin on Saturday.

Crude oil futures were little changed on Friday on mixed U.S. economic and tariff news and worries about oil supplies following the European Union's latest sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine.