The European Union will present measures to prevent the Russian and Belarusian athletes´s return to international competitions, Kaja Kallas, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, announced on Monday following a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg. The initiative could move forward alongside new sanctions regarding damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

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World Aquatics Lifts Restrictions on Russian and Belarusian Athletes

During a press conference, Kallas explained that the ministers discussed how to prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes from returning to international sports competitions. The discussion is part of the isolation measures promoted by the bloc in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine.

“The ministers also discussed how to prevent the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sports competitions,” the European representative stated. She added that a similar situation exists in the cultural sphere and maintained that sport and culture must not become instruments to mask Russian aggression.

The EU’s foreign policy chief indicated that her team would work with the European Commission to prepare the proposals. “Based on today’s discussion, my team, together with the Commission, will present proposals on how to maintain Russia’s isolation in the global sports arena,” she noted.

The European Union approved the 22nd package of anti-Russian sanctions and blacklisted about 1,600 companies and individuals related to the defense sector, EU diplomacy chief Kaja Kallas said.

TASS has collected key details of new restrictions:https://t.co/p0iEEeXV0o pic.twitter.com/dErqW0ZCc1

— TASS (@tassagency_en) October 12, 2026

Kallas added that the sports-related measures could be developed in parallel with new sanctions against those destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage. She did not detail the content of the proposals or specify when they would be presented.

The possibility of restricting the participation of Russian athletes in tournaments and other international events had already been raised by various EU officials.

In April, the European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef, described the decision by World Aquatics—the international swimming federation—to admit Russian and Belarusian swimmers to its competitions as a serious mistake. This Monday’s debate once again places international sport—alongside culture—among the areas where the EU seeks to maintain isolation measures regarding Russia.

For now, Kallas’s announcement concerns the drafting of proposals by her staff and the European Commission; the announcement did not specify how these measures would be implemented or which sports bodies might be affected.

The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, said EU foreign ministers adopted nearly 1,600 new sanctions targeting Russia’s military-industrial complex.

She said more than half of the new listings were linked to the ballistic… pic.twitter.com/QVCYvSeU2X

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 12, 2026

The EU adopted its largest-ever round of sanctions listings on 12 October, targeting the suppliers behind Russia’s war industry, the Council of the EU announced. The bloc acted as Russia keeps killing Ukrainian civilians every day, while US President Donald Trump eases sanctions on Russian diesel.

Russia’s planned winter campaign against Ukraine’s infrastructure depends on arms factories fed by a web of component suppliers and on oil revenue that still flows despite Ukraine’s refinery strikes, so every supplier cut off from that web raises the cost of waging it. As Washington eases off, Europe’s own pressure has a gap: its ports still take record volumes of Russian Arctic gas, and a full ban on long-term contracts starts only in 2027.

Missile suppliers top the list

More than half of the new listings hit the supply chain for ballistic missiles that Russia “uses to kill Ukrainian civilians every day,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in the statement. Russian attacks killed more than 150 people in the past week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 11 October.

The list names 826 Russian companies, mid-level firms the Council calls the “core” of Russia’s arms industry, with at least €20 billion in yearly turnover, and 743 people who run them. They make parts for missiles, drones, and military aircraft, from semiconductors and radars to explosives and navigation systems. Their assets are frozen, EU firms may not finance them, and the executives may not enter the EU.

Foreign ministers ratified a deal EU envoys reached on 7 October. Ukraine’s sanctions commissioner Vladyslav Vlasiuk said 60% of the listings came from Ukrainian proposals.

Ministers reject the diesel deal

EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg vowed to keep the sanctions despite Trump’s diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Euronews reported. Kallas addressed Washington directly as she arrived.

“The US is our biggest ally, but our message is clear: if we want to end this war, the only way we can do this is (by) putting more pressure on Russia,” Kallas said.

Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee called the deal “concerning,” and Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said it was “not the European way.” Kallas warned that an energy truce covering only refineries would favor Russia, since Ukraine has one refinery and Russia “plenty.”

Trump announced the diesel deal on 9 October, and the US Treasury waived sanctions on Russian diesel until April 2027. Zelenskyy said the EU would provide about €3 billion more in military aid this week.

Washington presses Kyiv

Trump expects Ukraine to stop hitting Russian refineries under his proposed energy ceasefire, a White House official told Axios. Zelenskyy said Kyiv would halt such strikes if Moscow did the same. On 10 October, Trump told reporters it was time for Ukraine to get a new president. Germany’s foreign minister, Britain’s defense secretary, and a senior lawmaker from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party backed Zelenskyy, while the Kremlin sided with Trump.

Zelenskyy offered to hold elections after a 60-day ceasefire, and Kallas said elections are impossible while the war goes on. The Institute for the Study of War assessed that Russia exploits Ukraine’s legal ban on wartime elections to drag out the war.