The three officers are members of Russia's General Staff of the Armed Forces Unit 29155, which has been connected attempted coups, sabotage, influence operations and assassinations.
The unit then expanded its activities online in 2020, and has been involved in several-high profile cyberattacks, including the deployment of WhisperGate malware against Ukrainian government computer systems starting a month before Russia invaded the Eastern European country on Feb. 24, 2022.
The three officers have been identified as Nikolay Alexandrovich Korchagin, 27, Vitaly Shevchenko, 27, and Yuriy Fedorovich Denisov, 44.
The European Council, which defines the 27-member bloc's political direction, agreed to sanction them on Monday.
"This decision confirms the willingness of the EU and its member states to provide a strong and sustained response to persistent malicious cyber activities targeting the EU, its member states and partners," the council said in a statement.
"The EU and its member states will continue to cooperate with our international partners to promote an open, free, stable and secure cyberspace."
The three men are accused of being responsbile for cyberattacks against Estonia in 2020 that permitted the theft of thousands of confidential documents from several government ministries.
Business secrets, health records and other information the European Union described as security compromising were stolen from Estonia's ministries of foreign affairs, social affairs and economic affairs and communications.
The United States and other democratic counties have warned about GRU 29155 for years.
Several of its members have been indicted in the United States, including six members in 2020 for conducting cyberattacks to support Russian government efforts to undermine the governments of Ukraine and Georgia as well as interfere in elections in France, amid efforts to hold Russia accountable for the use of a weapons-grade nerve agent and prevent its athletes from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
In September, Korchagin and Denisov were among five GRU officers and one Russian civilian charged in Maryland for deploying the WhisperGate malware in Ukraine.
The U.S. State Department has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information that leads to the identification or location of Denisov and Korchagin, while the offer lists Shevchenko as an associate of theirs.
With the sanctions, which includes asset freezes and travel bans, the EU has now blacklisted 17 people and four entities under its cyber sanctions regime.
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