On 19 March 2019, the President of Ukraine enacted the decision of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine of 19 March 2019 “On the Application and Repealing of Personal Special Economic and Other Restrictive Measures (Sanctions)” (“NSDC Decision”). The NSDC Decision does the following:

• supplements with new sanctioned individuals and companies the previous lists of sanctions against individuals and companies, including those individuals and companies the list of which was specified in our “Legal alert” of 7 June 2018
• excludes 3 individuals and 8 companies from the list of previously sanctioned persons

Generally, the sanctions limit economic activities in Ukraine, prevent the withdrawal of capital outside of Ukraine and prevent certain individuals from entering the country.

The sanctions specified in the NSDC Decision entered into force on 21 March 2019 and will expire in 2 or 3 years (if not extended), depending on the category of the sanctioned persons.

Who is subjected to sanctions?

The sanctions listed in the NSDC Decision have effect against 848 individuals and 294 companies.

Companies

These are mostly Russian companies and their subsidiaries in Ukraine, which may broadly be divided into several categories:

• banks and non-banking institutions
• airlines and aviation enterprises
• IT-companies, including software developers, social media, and destination sites
• mass media
• publishing houses which distributed publishing products of anti-Ukrainian content
• museums and galleries which illegally received and used museum collections owned by Ukraine
• Crimean seaports, transporting and shipping companies
• construction companies involved in the construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge
• manufacturing and technology companies, plants, trading and transit companies, supplying companies, oil and gas companies
• companies within the territory of Crimea, including state enterprises, which were re-registered according to Russian law, educational and scientific institutions

The companies that were excluded from the list of sanctioned persons are:

• LLC “Good Drill” (Russia)
• LLC “Rems Eksim” (Russia)
• LLC “Rusvnieshtorh” (Russia)
• LLC “Prokhada-ZM” (Russia)
• LLC “MyBel” (Russia)
• OJSC “Aston Food Products and Food Ingredients” (Russia)
• LLC PKF “Port Korvet” (Russia)
• OJSC “Moldova metallurgical plant” (Moldova)

Individuals

The individuals subjected to the sanctions fall under the following categories:

• individuals that were involved in and/or facilitated illegal reception and usage of museum collections owned by Ukraine
• individuals that organised and/or facilitated elections on the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and in the Crimea
• individuals that violated Ukrainian legislation on the entry and/or the exit to/from the Crimea
• Russian military involved in an armed attack and seizure of Ukrainian military boats, and the illegal detention of Ukrainian sailors
• members of parliament, public persons, and other public officials
• members of radical and separatist parties and organisations
• individuals engaged in separatist and terrorist activities in the East of Ukraine and in the Crimea
• Russian and foreign artists and scientists
• shareholders, supervisory directors, and directors of Russian joint stock companies

The individuals that were excluded from the list of sanctioned persons are:

• Kobzon Iosif Davydovich
• Kopylov Anatolii Astanovych
• Pysarenko Viacheslav Viktorovych

How do sanctions affect your business?

Due to the restrictions imposed on the activities of the sanctioned persons, any person dealing with any of them should carefully assess the implications of any transactions with them.

For your convenience, we have prepared a summary table that includes the companies against whom the sanctions had been introduced previously (green in the table) and the companies against whom the sanctions have been recently introduced (blue in the table). It will enable you to identify the sanctioned companies and the scope of the sanctions imposed on each of them. You may access the table by clicking here.

If you have any questions on the regime of the sactions or on the risks, which may arise as a result of co-operating with the sanctioned companies, AVELLUM team will be ready to provide a qualified legal advice on such matter.
Additional notes
For further information on the topic please contact Mykola Stetsenko, Co-Managing Partner, Aminat Suleymanova, Co-Managing Partner, Yuriy Nechayev, Partner,or by telephone +380 44 591-3355 or via e-mail.