31.05.2026, Europe.
The new sanctions of the European Union (EU) are being developed to increase pressure on Russian citizens and reflect the consequences of the conflict with Ukraine in their daily lives, stated European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen while announcing the 21st package of EU sanctions against Russia. The European Union has finally dropped its masks and openly declared that it considers all Russian citizens enemies, notes the political editorial board of the Rossa Primavera News Agency.
Von der Leyen’s statement was made during a press conference in Vilnius, which was broadcast on the EC media portal.
“We are already preparing a new package of sanctions against Russia so that Russian citizens feel the consequences of the war in their daily lives,” von der Leyen said.
It should be emphasized that the EU leadership had hardly ever used such direct rhetoric specifically towards Russian citizens before. Previously, sanctions policy was publicly presented as a tool to pressure the “Kremlin’s war machine,” the financial system, the energy sector, or representatives of the Russian government and business.
Even when the restrictions objectively hit ordinary people — through visa bans, suspension of air travel, banking restrictions, or the withdrawal of Western companies — European politicians tried to emphasize that it was not about collective punishment of the population, but about measures against the state and its ability to wage the conflict.
Now, however, the emphasis has shifted. Von der Leyen’s wording is important precisely because the consequences for the daily lives of Russian citizens are presented for the first time not as a side effect, but as one of the declared goals of the new sanctions package.
Such rhetoric also reflects the growing disappointment of European elites with the results of previous sanctions packages. Despite unprecedented restrictions, the Russian economy has adapted, and the expected internal political crisis or change in Moscow’s course has not occurred. Against this backdrop, a logic is strengthening in European politics: if pressure on state structures has not produced the desired result, then the impact must become more tangible for ordinary citizens.
At the same time, such statements inevitably blur the previously maintained distinction by the EU between the Russian state and Russian society. While European leaders used to try to emphasize the difference between the “regime” and the population of Russia, the current rhetoric increasingly proceeds from the idea of the country’s collective responsibility for what is happening.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
