EU Sanctions Against Belarus — Hybrid Activities Against EU Member States (December 2025)

On 15 December 2025, the Council of the European Union adopted a significant expansion of the Belarus sanctions framework, for the first time explicitly targeting individuals and entities involved in hybrid activities directed against EU member states. The measure extended the legal basis of the sanctions regime to cover operations beyond Belarus's borders.

New Category: Hybrid Warfare

Previous Belarus sanctions had covered domestic repression, facilitation of Russia's war in Ukraine, and migration instrumentalization. The December 2025 package introduced a new, broader listing criterion: persons responsible for or involved in:

• Cyberattacks and information operations targeting EU member states and institutions
• Sabotage operations against critical infrastructure on EU territory
• Disinformation campaigns coordinated by Belarusian state intelligence services
• Covert operations to undermine EU democratic processes and elections
• Coordination with Russian intelligence services on hybrid activities within the EU

Context: Escalating Hybrid Threats

By late 2025, EU intelligence assessments had documented a sustained campaign of hybrid activities attributed to Belarusian state actors (in many cases in coordination with Russian GRU operations), including:

• Interference in the information environment of several EU member states bordering Belarus
• Recruitment of EU nationals for intelligence and sabotage tasks
• Support for far-right and far-left extremist groups in EU countries
• Coordinated harassment and intimidation campaigns against Belarusian diaspora communities in the EU

Individuals and Entities Designated

The December 2025 package listed senior KGB officials responsible for foreign intelligence operations, as well as entities involved in information warfare and cyber operations. The specific numbers were not disclosed in full at the time of adoption to protect ongoing investigations.

Significance

This package marked the first time that EU sanctions against Belarus were explicitly extended to cover offensive actions by Belarus directly against EU territory and citizens, rather than solely Lukashenko's treatment of his own population or his support for Russia's operations in Ukraine. It reflected a broader EU assessment that Belarus had become an active participant in a range of destabilising activities against the EU.