The European Union and the United Kingdom on Monday announced a coordinated package of sanctions against Russian individuals and entities accused of conducting cyber espionage and sabotage across Europe. For the first time, both explicitly attributed a failed attack on Poland’s electricity grid to Centre 16 of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The EU blacklisted nine individuals and four entities; the UK added 24 names. The measures include asset freezes and travel bans targeting officers of the GRU military intelligence agency, cybercriminals, and private companies.

The British government described the sanctions as targeting “the Russian state’s persistent and increasingly reckless attempts to sow chaos and division across Europe.” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas denounced what she called a “malicious cyber ecosystem” that spans state intelligence, criminal groups, and hacktivists. France’s foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Paris would summon the Russian ambassador and sanction nine individuals and four entities, citing a “vast cyber campaign” aimed at capturing information or sabotaging infrastructure, including railways in Poland. Germany also summoned its Russian ambassador, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman stating that hostile cyber activities attributed to Moscow were “unacceptable” and would be met decisively. The Kremlin, through spokesman Dmitry Peskov, dismissed the parallel Paris summit of Ukraine’s allies as a meeting of a “coalition of warmongers” and said it would monitor the gathering closely.

According to Western intelligence assessments, the FSB’s Centre 16 has for years controlled threat groups such as Turla, conducting cyber espionage against governmental entities in France since 2010 and targeting defence industry networks in 2025. The EU listed nine member states—including Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and Finland—as having been affected. The UK also sanctioned individuals linked to the Lumma Stealer malware, which the National Crime Agency said had compromised at least 2,100 victims in Britain in the past six months, and targeted the Rybar media network for spreading pro-Kremlin disinformation and interfering in elections in Moldova and Armenia. The coordinated action marks the first joint cyber sanctions package between the EU and the UK since Britain’s departure from the bloc in 2020, and comes as Western officials warn that Moscow has intensified its hybrid campaign to destabilise Europe more than four years into the war in Ukraine.

The sanctions were announced on the same day EU foreign ministers met in Brussels and leaders of the “Coalition of the Willing” gathered in Paris to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, including the formalisation of the Freyja air-defence project. The EU separately imposed sanctions on 15 individuals and one entity for serious human rights violations against Ukrainian prisoners of war, including a Russian prison official accused of torture. The bloc is also weighing a 21st package of sanctions against Moscow, with additional names expected to be added. The Russian ambassadors in Paris, Berlin, and The Hague have been summoned, and further diplomatic protests are anticipated from other affected capitals.