You're reading: Ukrainian Choice NGO says US sanctions against Medvedchuk ‘not a problem’

Possible US sanctions against Ukrainian Choice leader Viktor Medvedchuk is not something to worry about, the civil organization said in a press release.

“I don’t think the inclusion of Viktor Medvedchuk in that sanctions list is a problem,” the press service of the NGO told the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news service on Jan.12, adding that US sanctions against Medvedchuk were first announced in 2014 and that Medvedchuk “feels absolutely fine.”

At the same time, the “Ukrainian choice” noted that the United States imposed sanctions against Medvedchuk back in 2014. “And with these sanctions, Viktor Medvedchuk feels great, because he considers these actions of the United States as a high assessment of his activity in combating internal management, which the US has introduced in Ukraine,” the press service said.

“Medvedchuk will continue to carry out his activities aimed at preserving the sovereignty of our state, protecting its independence… He will continue to fight for a peaceful settlement of the situation in eastern Ukraine, and the return of all detained persons to their families, despite the opposition of the United States or the Ukrainian party of war,” the movement added.

As earlier reported, Washington in 2014 imposed sanctions against Ukrainian and Crimean politicians, including Medvedchuk, for the Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. The relevant executive order 13660 blocking property of certain persons contributing to the situation in Ukraine was published on March 6, 2014.

Viktor Medvedchuk is the leader of Ukrainian Choice, “a group through which he has been stirring conflict in Kherson, a province just north of Crimea, through advertising campaigns designed to pit supporters and foes of Russia’s attempt to annex Crimea against one another,” the US Treasury Department said in a report about the impositions of the sanctions.

“A long-time proxy and close personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he acted as a liaison between Yanukovych and Putin. Medvedchuk and Andriy Kliuyev, the former Secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, were involved in the development of the scenario that led to clashes outside the Presidential Administration in Kyiv on Dec.1, 2013,” the Department said.