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The EU adopted its 21st package of sanctions against Russia on 23 July. The package ended up weaker than the European Commission's original June proposals: in particular, a ban on imports of Russian cod and pollock was dropped following objections from Germany, Poland and Portugal. Greece also secured a 12-month exemption allowing its shipping operators to carry Russian liquefied natural gas to third countries.

The 21st package also left out an Austrian initiative to unfreeze shares in the construction group Strabag that are formally owned by Russia's Rasperia. The Austrian bank Raiffeisen wants to use that asset to offset losses incurred in Russia by its subsidiary, AO Raiffeisenbank. A Russian court earlier ordered Raiffeisenbank to pay 2.4 billion euros to Rasperia over a collapsed deal to sell the Strabag shares to the Raiffeisen group.

Several EU member states had objected to the bloc helping Raiffeisen, which continues to operate in Russia.

Raiffeisen and Raiffeisenbank intend to bring proceedings in Austria to recover 3.15 billion euros from Rasperia, including the Strabag stake, which would first require the sanctions freeze on it to be lifted. Raiffeisen Bank International said so on 23 July.

In the preamble to the sanctions acts, the EU warned European operators "to take any possible steps to wind down businesses in Russia and not to start new businesses there." At the same time, it extended certain deadlines for winding down European companies' operations in Russia to 31 December 2027. In particular, European regulators may, on a case-by-case basis, grant authorisations to meet Russian companies' claims against European ones — for example, for the return of an advance payment for goods not delivered because of sanctions.

Under the 21st package, the EU imposed blocking sanctions on several dozen Russian banks — including Rosselkhozbank and the online-marketplace banks Ozon Bank, WB Bank and Yandex Bank — as well as the conglomerate AFK Sistema, the Moscow Exchange, several gold producers and others.

It banned European transactions with the Russian ports of Olya (Astrakhan region) and Vysotsk (Leningrad region) and with four airports, including Sheremetyevo.

A legal instrument was adopted allowing the EU to prohibit any transaction between European operators and crypto-asset services or platforms in specific third countries that it deems to be systematically permitting the circumvention of crypto sanctions against Russia. No country has yet been added to this new list.

The EU also expanded the mechanisms protecting its companies from Russian claims linked to financial demands arising from European sanctions. First, EU companies will be able to sue their non-Russian contractual counterparties if those counterparties have sued a European company outside the EU for abandoning a contract because of anti-Russia sanctions. Second, EU courts will be able to issue injunctions against the enforcement in non-EU countries of decisions or orders handed down by Russian courts. Third, the 21st package obliges EU states not to recognise, give effect or enforce decisions of Russian courts or state bodies where those decisions are linked to sanctions.