You're reading: At last, Ukraine set to impose tougher sanctions against Russia

Nearly a year after Russia invaded militarily, Ukraine is finally taking a harder stance against Russian businesses and individuals by adopting sanctions endorsed by the National Security and Defense Council.

On Feb. 6, Ukraine’s Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said the boycott list includes around 100 companies and more than 1,000 individuals. It will be published as soon as it gets President Petro Poroshenko’s approval.  

Viktoria Siumar, a lawmaker for Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk People’s Front party, said the parliament has already passed all their recommendations and now it’s up to Poroshenko to sign it.

“We (People’s Front Party) are totally for the sanctions,” Siumar told the Kyiv Post. “However, now the president is negotiating as he tries to get both a political and economic perspective and he knows better what will do less harm for the country. Of course, we try to use diplomatic measures first.”  

In August, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law that allows the government to impose economic sanctions against Russian Federation.

Ukraine proposed to ban entry for foreign nationals who supported military aggression against Ukraine and to prohibit the government procurement of goods and services of Russian-based legal entities.

The government also aims to prohibit Russian state resident companies and companies with a Russian stake that supported aggression against Ukraine from exporting capital.

Meanwhile, Aivaras Abromavicius, Ukraine’s economy minister, while addressing lawmakers in the Parliament on Feb. 6, said that Ukraine has made a decision to deprive at least 160 Russian companies of licenses and permits for a range of activities. They also won’t be able to receive royalties in Ukraine.

“This includes the freezing of accounts and assets owned by individuals and legal entities,” Abromavicius explained.

After Russia-backed separatists renewed its military offensive against the Ukrainian army in January, the EU also agreed to add additional Russian officials to its blacklist Feb. 6. One of Russia’s deputy defense ministers and two senior Defense Ministry officials made it to the list.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who leads the Batkivshchyna Party, said Ukrainian officials should be pro-active in pressing sanctions.

“There were no effective discussions on the type of sanctions that would be imposed or their duration,” Tymoshenko said in Kyiv on Feb. 6. “Ukrainians should also know the economic impact of these sanctions on Russia.”

Tymoshenko also calls on Parliament to discuss the issue with the Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Security and Defense Council members on Feb. 13.

Hanna Hopko, a lawmaker of Samopomich (Self-Reliance) Party, however, said sanctions should have been imposed much earlier.

“It’s obvious that Ukraine started to apply these measures too late. The reason is also because there’s a number of people who have business ties with Russia,” Hopko told the Kyiv Post. According to Hopko, the democratic countries need to keep Russia’s sanctions.

“I believe that the world should react and finally cut Russian banks from the SWIFT (international financial transaction system). This would be an effective answer to Russia,” Hopko says.