On 14 May 2018, the President of Ukraine enacted a decision of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (the “NSDC“) imposing new and extending existing sanctions against certain Russian companies and individuals (the “Decision“). [Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 126/2018 dated 14 May 2018 enacting the NSDC’s Resolution dated 2 May 2018 “On Imposition and Cancellation of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)”.]
The details of the new Ukrainian sanctions enacted by the President of Ukraine on 14 May 2018 were announced on 24 May 2018 to become effective upon their official publication next week.
The new sanctions will significantly extend the Ukrainian sanctions program against Russia by placing more than 400 companies and 1000 individuals including:
- Russian oil and gas companies Rosneft, Lukoil and Transoil;
- major Russian producers of fertilizers, such as PhosAgro PJSC, EuroChem Mineral and Chemical Company, United Chemical Company “Uralkhim”;
- companies related to the WebMoney online payment settlement system, such as WM Transfer Ltd (Lithuania), ВМР Ltd (Russia), WebMoney.Ru Ltd (Russia), WebMoney Europe Ltd (the United Kingdom), Amstar Holdings Limited (Hong Kong), etc. (The sanctions also prohibit Internet providers to give access to the resources and services of WebMoney.);
- Gaz Alliance Ltd, Coal Technologies Ltd and other Russian companies related to supply of coal from the territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions currently under the control of Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics;
- JSC «Moldavian Metallurgical Plant»;
- Moscow Exchange MICEX-RTS; and
- representative offices in Ukraine of “Financial company Elmi”, “VM-Factor”, “Paymaster”,
on the sanctions list with a broad range of sanctions measures (freeze of assets, restrictions on financial and trade operations) applying to them.
The new Ukrainian sanctions partially reflect the US sanctions placed on prominent Russian businessmen Oleg Deripaska, Igor Rotenberg, Vladimir Bogdanov, Suleiman Kerimov, Viktor Vekselberg, Andrey Kostin, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and Ukrainian oligarch Sergii Kurchenko.
Importantly, the sanctions program adopted by Ukraine in May 2017 [Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 133/2017 from 15 May 2017 enacting the NSDC’s Resolution dated 28 April 2017 “On Imposition of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)”] continues to apply to 113 companies and 531 individuals for another three years, while the sanctions on certain Ukrainian banks which have capital from Russian state-owned banks remain effective till March 2019 [Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 57/2018 from 6 March 2018 enacting the NSDC’s Resolution dated 1 March 20178 “On Imposition of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)”].
Earlier the President of Ukraine announced that the new sanctions will be harmonized with the US sanctions, including the sanctions placed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on 6 April 2018 against Oleg Deripaska. The new set of sanctions would target persons doing business in the Crimea and supplying weapons to Russia.
For additional information, please contact the author, Hanna Shtepa.
