BRUSSELS (Xinhua) – European Union (EU) ambassadors reached a political agreement on the bloc’s 21st package of sanctions against Russia on Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media.
In a post on X, von der Leyen said that the new package would add another 32 Russian banks to the EU’s transaction-ban list and target crypto firms and oil-trading platforms.
The EU will also freeze the mechanism for adjusting the price cap on Russian oil for one year, so that what she called the “Russian war machine” does not benefit from market shocks, she said.
For the first time, the EU will target vessels assisting Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” von der Leyen said, adding that the bloc had also taken an important step toward formally banning Russian combatants from entering the EU.
The agreement still requires technical work and formal approval of all 27 member states through a written procedure.
The European Commission proposed the 21st sanctions package against Russia in June, focusing on the energy and financial sectors, crypto assets and trade. 
The bloc held several failed rounds of talks on the package, which requires unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states, with a number of nations arguing that some of the proposals would harm their economic interests. Greece, which has the world’s largest independent cross-trade LNG fleet by capacity, warned that banning EU shipping companies from transporting Russian LNG would harm Greek shipping interests, including Dynagas.
Moscow has long maintained that the sanctions will not alter its political course or have a decisive impact on its economy, while analysts have warned that the sanctions largely backfire on those that impose them.