Ukraine calls for tightening customs duties on Russian imports

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sepiga said "If there are products that are not covered by European sanctions, we will raise the issue of imposing customs duties on them"

Customs duties on Russian goods

He explained that a similar step might enable the European Union to overcome the opposition of Hungary and Slovakia, which threaten to obstruct the expansion of sanctions imposed on Moscow.

Sepiga added during a joint press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky. "We will work on this with our European partners"

The European Union had raised customs duties on some Russian goods, especially agricultural products and fertilizers, as part of the sanctions packages it imposed on Russia since the invasion in 2022.

But imposing sanctions requires the consensus of the member states of the Union, including Budapest and Bratislava, while imposing new customs duties only requires the support of 15 countries representing 65% of the Union’s population, according to the Ukrainian minister.
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European sanctions on Russia

Sepiga considered that raising customs duties on some Russian goods could be "An additional means to strengthen European sanctions" And to avoid being disrupted by some of the 27 members of the Union.

Russian goods are currently subject to varying customs duties depending on the type of product.

According to official European data, the European Union’s imports of Russian goods declined from 62.7 billion euros in the first quarter of 2022, before the beginning of the invasion, to 6.98 billion euros in the second quarter of 2025, a decrease of 89%.