Western governments marked the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine with new measures targeting the Kremlin’s revenue streams and enabling networks, despite stalled efforts by the EU to approve a broad sanctions package.

On Tuesday, the United States imposed cyber-related sanctions on four individuals and three entities, including targets based in Russia and the United Arab Emirates. The Treasury Department said the people and entities were designated for acquiring and distributing cyber tools harmful to U.S. national security. 

The State Department also designated one individual and two entities under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA) in connection with the theft of trade secrets from U.S. persons. The action followed a U.S. investigation into a former government-contractor executive who sold trade secrets to a buyer in Russia for $1.3 million, Reuters reported. 

The news agency said that Peter Williams of L3Harris pleaded guilty last year to two counts of theft of trade secrets and was sentenced on Tuesday to 87 months in federal prison. The Justice Department said Williams took “at least eight sensitive and protected cyber-exploit components” from his job and sold them to “a Russian cyber-tools broker,” Reuters reported. Read more at Reuters

Canada paired new sanctions with additional military assistance, CBC reported. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced an additional C$2 billion in military equipment for Ukraine, including more than 400 armored vehicles, as Global Affairs Canada unveiled new sanctions aimed at individuals and companies helping fuel Moscow’s war effort. 

The new Canadian sanctions target Russian firms specializing in artificial intelligence and drone production, as well as individual tankers that smuggle Russian oil to market, the news agency said. As part of the package, Canada targeted 100 ships that are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers used to avoid sanctions and price caps, Carney said. 

G7 nations, including Canada, lowered the price cap on Russian oil to $44.10 per barrel from $47.60, after an original $60 cap, in an effort to force Russia to sell near break-even or lose market access, according to the CBC report. Read more at CBC

The United Kingdom separately moved to broaden its Russia sanctions with a focus on energy, payments, and technology transfer, the Financial Times reported. Nearly 300 entities linked to Russian energy and military production were added to the UK’s sanctions lists, with more than half tied to what the Foreign Office called the “2Rivers Network.” 

The UK government linked the network to Tahir Garayev, an Azeri businessman described as having close links to Rosneft, and said it was “one of the largest shadow fleet operators globally and a major trader of Russian crude oil,” the FT reported. 

Britain separately expanded restrictions on Transneft, the state-owned pipeline operator, added nine entities in the LNG sector and sanctioned 48 tankers in the so-called ghost fleet. The package also included nine Russian banks said to process cross-border payments, and 49 entities and individuals described as sustaining Russia’s war machine, including Chinese suppliers such as Shenzhen Sowin Precision Machine Tools, the FTreported. Read more at the Financial Times

In Brussels, the European Union failed to pass a new sanctions package after Hungary objected, the Associated Press reported, calling it a setback on a day EU officials had wanted to demonstrate unity on the anniversary. 

Hungary argued it would not move until Russian oil deliveries resume, after shipments to Hungary and Slovakia were interrupted since Jan. 27 following what Ukrainian officials said were Russian drone attacks that damaged the Druzhba pipeline carrying crude across Ukrainian territory into Central Europe, according to the AP. Read more at the Associated Press