The Biden administration said it would impose sanctions on the company behind the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline while diplomats said the European Union sanctioned Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the country’s Internet Research Agency and several other high-profile Russian officials.

The moves are part of the first wave of measures that governments in Washington, Brussels and London say will be a coordinated package of fuller sanctions should Russia escalate military tensions in Ukraine.

President...

The Biden administration said it would impose sanctions on the company behind the Nord Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline while diplomats said the European Union sanctioned Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, the country’s Internet Research Agency and several other high-profile Russian officials.

The moves are part of the first wave of measures that governments in Washington, Brussels and London say will be a coordinated package of fuller sanctions should Russia escalate military tensions in Ukraine.

President Biden said Wednesday the U.S. plans to sanction Nord Stream 2 AG. The $11.3 billion pipeline project was intended for exporting gas from Russia to Germany without its transiting through Ukraine. The U.S. sanctions would effectively kill off any prospect of reviving the project, a key Moscow priority. The German government said earlier in the week it would halt the certification process for Nord Stream 2.

The EU sanctions, meanwhile, were signed off Wednesday afternoon by officials and were due to take force later in the day. On Tuesday, the U.S. and the U.K. adopted separate sanctions measures against Russia over its recognition this week of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine and the deployment of Russian forces into the area.

The measures so far are significantly narrower than what European and American officials have spent weeks crafting to punish President Vladimir Putin should Russian forces invade Ukraine. Those broader measures have at times included options such as cutting Russia off from the global banking system and restricting the export of certain technology to the country.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu is among 22 individuals targeted by new European Union sanctions.

Photo: russian foreign ministry press/EPA/Shutterstock

EU leaders plan to meet in Brussels on Thursday evening. In the event of further Russian aggression, the bloc could agree to a fresh round of sanctions then.

A key calculation among officials on both sides of the Atlantic is how hard to hit if Russia occupies parts of eastern Ukraine beyond the separatist-held areas and to what extent to maintain some deterrence in case Moscow moves to take the rest of the country, including its capital, Kyiv. In discussions this week, EU member states such as Italy, Cyprus and Germany have favored a more gradual approach, diplomats said. France, Poland and the Baltic states are more eager to ensure Russia’s next move is met with sweeping sanctions.

Some officials want those sanctions announced in advance to serve more as a deterrent, rather than punishment, for Russian aggression.

“Every day, we should be making our sanctions deeper, deeper, and deeper,” said Andrzej Zybertowicz, an adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, and an adviser to the head of Poland’s National Security Bureau. “The position should have been months ago, that the West publishes the ladder of sanctions.... If the West would let go of its utopian misjudgments, we can still block Putin.”

Washington, Brussels and London had four or five calls to coordinate this week’s first-blush response, according to one Western official familiar with the calls. Work is continuing to coordinate the next step in sanctions. British officials say they are working on further sanctions including plans to ban the Russian government from issuing debt on the London markets, restrict exports of key technology components to Russia and freeze the U.K. assets of a wider caste of Russian oligarchs. “We will hit them hard in the future,” said U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

President Biden discussed the crisis in Ukraine at the White House this week.

Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The EU has also lined up other actions it could take, diplomats said. They include a block on high-tech exports for energy and other sectors, possibly including semiconductors; broad measures to lock additional Russian state and private banks out of European financial markets; a ban on new investment in Russian gas projects; and export controls for a swath of other Russian sectors. On Wednesday, a group of EU countries also pushed officials to swiftly expand the criteria under which Russians can be sanctioned to allow the bloc to more easily go after Russian oligarchs who have largely been untouched so far by the bloc’s measures.

Another option: fresh sanctions on Russia’s biggest banks— Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank. Those names were floated in draft legislation considered by the U.S. Congress in January, and Sberbank and VTB were mentioned by U.S. officials recently as possible targets. The three banks are already under a U.S. and European sanction list that prevents them from raising debt in those markets. But forbidding companies and people in the West from doing business with them outright would mean these banks and their customers would be cut off from access to U.S. dollars and other currencies. It could trigger domestic deposit flights. Representatives for the three banks weren’t available for comment.

Off the table so far: measures that could curtail oil-and-gas exports out of Russia. Also being kept off the table for now is cutting Russia out of the Swift financial-transactions network—now seen as a last resort in European capitals. European governments fear that cutting Russia out of Swift could make it hard to pay for Russian energy imports.

Representatives of Russia’s embassy in London weren’t immediately available for comment and Russia’s mission in Brussels declined to comment. Russia’s foreign ministry in a statement Wednesday said “sanctions pressure is not able to affect our determination to firmly defend our interests.” The statement said Moscow was ready to respond: “There should be no doubt that sanctions will be given a strong response, not necessarily symmetrical, but measured.”

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, called the sanctions illegitimate. She is on the EU sanctions list.

Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry/TASS/Zuma Press

EU and U.K. sanctions include measures aimed at most Russian lawmakers, a ban on purchasing and trading new Russian bonds and an asset freeze and exclusion from EU markets of three Russian banks: VEB, Rossiya and Promsvyazbank. Imports from and exports to the separatist regions will also be banned.

Many of the measures unveiled by European capitals are catching up to U.S. sanctions. Those moves are intended to tighten the financial noose on the entities targeted, which have for years managed to operate outside the U.S. financial system, but continue to be able to work more freely in Europe, closer to home.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

How effective do you think sanctions against Russia will be? Join the conversation below.

The EU is placing targeted sanctions on 22 individuals and the Internet Research Agency, diplomats said. The group is already sanctioned by the U.S. for allegedly fueling divisions among voters during the 2016 U.S. elections. The targets don’t include Mr. Putin, although Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, said on Tuesday that the Russian leader could be hit with a travel ban and asset freeze if there were fresh Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Among the individuals listed by the EU are Mr. Shoigu and several other senior military commanders, including the chiefs of staff of Russia’s navy and of its Defense Ministry, diplomats said. The sanctions list also includes Anton Vaino, the chief of staff of Mr. Putin’s presidential office and senior officials at the three banks being targeted, including Igor Shuvalov, the head of VEB, who is a former first deputy prime minister of Russia and close ally of Mr. Putin.

Igor Shuvalov, who heads Russian bank VEB, is also on the EU’s sanctions list.

Photo: Peter Kovalev/TASS/Zuma Press

The EU also sanctioned Maria Zakharova, a combative longtime spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, diplomats said.

VEB, in a statement following Tuesday’s sanctions listing, said the bank always complies with the laws of the countries in which it implements its projects and that sanctions won’t affect its “commitment to its mission of promoting the development of the Russian economy and the well-being of its citizens.” Promsvyazbank, in comments reported by Russian news agencies, said it had expected to be sanctioned and that the measures won’t have a significant impact on its activities. “The bank is operating normally and is continuing its activities in all areas,” it said. Rossiya didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Internet Research Agency is headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Mr. Putin who is already under EU sanctions over his connection to the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group. The EU is targeting the Internet Research Agency because of its role in allegedly spreading disinformation about Ukraine and the current crisis.

Mr. Prigozhin, who is also under U.S. sanctions, has denied the agency was involved in interfering with the U.S. election campaign.

—Max Colchester and Patricia Kowsmann contributed to this article.

Write to Laurence Norman at laurence.norman@wsj.com