Zelensky imposes sanctions on Medvedchuk and seven other persons

President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree enabling
the decision of Ukraine’s security council to impose sanctions on MP Viktor
Medvedchuk and others for three years, the presidential press service said on
Feb. 20.

 

The day before, the decision was taken to impose
sanctions on 19 legal entities, five Russian citizens and three Ukrainians. The
latter are Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of the political council of the
pro-Russian Opposition Platform – For Life party; his wife and TV star Oksana
Marchenko; and Natalia Lavreniuk, an alleged life partner of Taras Kozak who became the first Ukrainian MP under Ukraine’s sanctions
since he owns three TV channels (now closed).

 

Konstantin Vatskovsky, Vitaly Donchenko, Sergei
Lisogor, Alexander Maslyuk, and Mikhail Popov are the five Russians mentioned
in the decision on sanctions. The ban list includes five aircraft on which
flights were carried out on the Kyiv-Moscow route, Zelensky’s press service
said. Sportmaster, Russian and Ukrainian large sports goods retail chain, was
also listed but reported that it continued normal operations over the past
weekend.

 

The sanctions envisage freezing of assets,
restrictions on trade operations, suspending economic and financial
obligations, and cancelling licenses to use subsurface resources. Transit of
resources through Ukraine and the withdrawal of capital from the country are
also prohibited.

 

The decision to impose sanctions was based on
documents and videos provided by the Security Service of Ukraine that prove the
illegal terrorist activities of these persons, said Oleksiy Danilov, the
secretary of Ukraine’s security council. Speaking on TV late Friday, he blamed
the three Ukrainians, as well as Taras Kozak who had been sanctioned earlier,
for owning a Russian oil refinery which supplies oil materials “to the
territory of terrorists who kill our fighters.”

 

The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv welcomed the second wave of
sanctions. “We support Ukraine’s efforts to protect its sovereignty and
territorial integrity through sanctions,” the embassy posted on Facebook on Feb
20. “Viktor Medvedchuk has been under U.S. sanctions since 2014 for undermining
Ukraine’s security, territorial integrity, and democratic institutions,” the
embassy wrote.

 

Yuri Svirko: Ukrainians
are divided in their attitude towards the sanctions against the three
pro-Russian TV channels. While more people support sanctions than do not, still
less than 50% of polled were in favor of them, according to two polls in the
first half of February. Still, there are voices that repeat the old wording of
“selective justice” used to describe Ukraine’s traditional disease of lacking
the rule of law.

 

In turn, Zelensky and his team introduced a new
concept of “justified selection” concerning Ukrainian nationals to be
sanctioned. It is worth to remind that the four selected Ukrainians are two
elected MPs and their wives. Outlawed lawmakers might be Ukraine’s unique
invention.

 

Given the promise by Danilov to punish those who
own “offshore companies and had been stealing from the Ukrainian people since
1991,” we expect new waves of sanctions against nationals of Ukraine.