EN
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was met with an unprecedented level of sanctions applied by a number of states. These sanctions were autonomous in nature, i.e. implementing individual or collective (as in the case of the EU) initiatives of states. This approach was a consequence of the failure of the Security Council to adopt a resolution declaring that Russia’s armed attack constituted an act of aggression and ordering states to apply appropriate measures. The aim of the article is to show the spectrum of sanctions applied by the European Union (i.e. a non-party to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict) and to try to assess them from the perspective of general international law. In particular, the article identifies that sanctions adopted by the EU can be considered from the perspective of international law (i.e. EU and Member State obligations) as either retorsion or countermeasures by a third state. At the same time it was noted that the diversity of Member States’ bilateral international obligations towards the sanctioned state/entity may mean that while for some members of EU sanctions may be retorsion, for others they may turn out to be (sometimes only at the stage of possible legal proceedings) countermeasures.