Review of UK sanctions of 24 February 2026

On 24 February 2026, the United Kingdom (“UK”) announced new blocking sanctions targeting several hundred Russian and foreign entities, as well as ships transporting Russian oil and gas. Furthermore, the UK issued a new general licence and amended an existing licence authorising certain transactions with designated persons. We summarise the most significant changes below.

Expansion of the list of designated persons

UK blocking sanctions targeted 7 individuals and 240 legal entities, inter alia:

• companies involved in the Russian energy sector, including:
• PJSC Transneft;
• Rosatom Group companies — JSC Rosatom Energy Projects and JSC Rusatom Overseas, as well as their directors Andrey Rozhdestvin and Ilya Vergizaev; and
• Gazprom SPG Portovaya LLC, part of the PJSC Gazprom Group;
• 175 companies linked to Coral Energy Group (currently 2Rivers), based in the UAE and involved in exporting Russian oil and petroleum products;
• 9 Russian banks — Post Bank JSC, Avers Bank JSC, PJSC “Transcapitalbank”, JSCB “Absolut Bank” (PJSC), Sinara Bank JSC, JSC CB “Lanta-Bank”, LLC “Bank Tochka”, JSCB “AK Bars” (PJSC), and JSCB “Fora-Bank” (JSC);
• 29 companies linked to the Russian defence sector, including JSC Stupino Metallurgical Company, JSC Altay Instrument-Making Plant Rotor, PAO Zavod Ladoga, JSC Dalpribor, and others;
• a number of companies from China, Thailand and Poland involved in supplying military and dual-use goods;
• Midax Group LLC, involved in supplying the Russian electronics sector, as well as its general director Mikhail Grishchenko; and
• the Georgian Imedi TV and POSTV television channels.

Furthermore, the UK blocking sanctions also targeted 50 ships involved in transporting Russian oil and gas to third countries.
The full list of persons and ships subject to UK blocking sanctions of 24 February 2026 is available here.

Consequences of the UK blocking sanctions

As a reminder, the UK blocking sanctions impose the following obligations on UK PersonsAny individuals within the UK, irrespective of nationality; UK citizens, irrespective of where they are located; UK registered legal entities and their branches; and any persons on board any aircraft or sea vessel under the jurisdiction of the UK (“UK Persons”). UK sanctions restrictions targeting Russia also apply to British Overseas Territories (excluding Bermuda and Gibraltar).:

• to freeze (block) assets of designated persons: funds, securities, immovable and movable property, etc.; and
• to refrain from making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of designated persons (in the absence of prior authorisation in the form of a licence).

The abovementioned restrictive measures also apply to legal entities that are directly or indirectly owned (by more than 50%) or controlled by designated persons.

General licences

The UK has issued General Licence No. INT/2026/8889196, which authorises the winding down of any transactions involving PJSC Transneft and companies directly or indirectly owned or controlled by it. This licence is valid until 9 April 2026.

Furthermore, General Licence INT/2025/5635700 has been amended, allowing the continuation of certain business operations related to certain projects of designated Russian energy companies. The list of such projects now includes the Druzhba oil pipeline.