The European Union has trained its next round of sanctions on the companies that build Russia’s attack drones, as Moscow presses one of the deadliest aerial campaigns against Ukrainian cities of the war.
A mass overnight barrage of missiles and drones hit Kyiv early on July 2, killing at least 13 people and injuring more than 80, according to the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko. Rescue teams were still searching collapsed buildings and the toll was expected to rise.
Six floors of one apartment block gave way after a direct hit and around 30 sites across the capital were damaged, Ukrainian officials said. Poland briefly scrambled fighter jets and Finland imposed a short-lived airspace restriction while the attack was under way.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha urged allies not to delay decisions on air defences and to press Moscow with fresh sanctions. Russia’s defence ministry said it had carried out a mass strike on Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, though residential districts across the capital were hit.
The bloc’s 21st sanctions package, presented by the European Commission in June, would list more than 30 entities tied to Russian drone production. It would also place export controls on some 50 firms accused of feeding that supply chain, several based in China, Turkey and the Gulf.
Further measures would ban exports of drone-related equipment such as jamming and launch systems, alongside curbs on metals and alloys used by the defence industry. The package requires the backing of all member states and is due to be adopted by mid-July.
The drive follows repeated findings that European-made parts keep turning up inside Russian drones despite four years of restrictions. A cross-border investigation this year traced more than 100 components from about 20 European firms in the wreckage of downed Geran-2 drones.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said the bloc would keep tightening pressure on Russia’s war economy while increasing its support for Kyiv. Brussels is preparing to hand Ukraine €6 billion for drones under a wider €90 billion loan.
Analysts have cautioned that the effect of the new listings would depend less on their number than on whether enforcement can keep pace with the re-export routes through third countries that Moscow has used to skirt earlier packages.
