Sanctions 2025

UKRAINE Law and Practice Contributed by: Denys Bugay, Volodymyr Vashchenko and Denys Shkarovsky, VB Partners

• In January 2025, the President of Ukraine regis - tered in the Parliament a draft law on the Criminali- sation of Violations and/or Intentional Circumven - tion of Sanctions. (a) Despite the fact that the institution of sanctions has existed since 2014, there is no criminal liability for their violation and/or circumvention. (b) The draft law proposes amendments to: (i) The Law of Ukraine “On Sanctions”, (ii) The Criminal Code of Ukraine and (iii) The Criminal Proce - dure Code of Ukraine. (c) The key amendments are: (i) introduction of a prohibition on violation/ circumvention of sanctions; (ii) definition of the notion of “sanctions cir - cumvention”; and (iii) introduction of a new crime: violation of sanctions and/or intentional circumvention of sanctions. (d) This is not the first attempt to criminalise sanc - tions violation and/or circumvention in Ukraine, but previous attempts have not been success - ful. Taking into account that the new draft law was registered by the President of Ukraine, there is a high chance that sanctions violation and/or circumvention will be criminalised soon. • In May 2022, of a new type of sanction, “confis - cation of assets into state income”, came into effect. This sanction is special both in the terms and grounds of its imposition, and in the imposi - tion procedure. It is imposed by the High Anti- Corruption Court, following the suit of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The assets of the persons who have created a threat to the national security of Ukraine or contributed to its creation through their actions, are subject to confiscation into state income. The Law of Ukraine “On Sanctions” provides a fairly broad, but not exhaustive, list of grounds for imposing the above sanction. These grounds can be divided into several groups. • Political – decision-making or lobbying regarding armed aggression against Ukraine, creation of ille - gal authorities of the Russian Federation, holding elections and/or referendums on the temporarily

occupied territory of Ukraine, planning, leader - ship, co-ordination and personal participation in the aggression of the Russian Federation. It can conditionally be politicians, government officials, collaborators and military personnel. • Economic – (i) financing the Russian Federation’s activities by paying taxes, providing charitable assistance, investing in military bonds; and (b) military support in the form of supply of weapons, transfer of property. (a) At the same time, the Law establishes the mini- mum indicators under which the provision of economic resources to the Russian Federation will be the basis for imposing this sanction. (b) Payment of taxes, fees to the Russian Federa - tion’s state income – the total amount of such payments (except customs payments) for the last four consecutive tax (reporting) quarters should exceed an equivalent of UAH40 mil - lion for a legal entity and UAH3 million for an individual, determined at the weighted average official exchange rate of the National Bank of Ukraine for the same period. (c) Donations, charitable assistance, free transfer of property – the total amount of such funds or the value of property during the year should be at least UAH750,000 at the official exchange rate of the National Bank of Ukraine. (d) Investing in government bonds of the Russian Federation – the total amount of investment during the year should be at least UAH3 mil - lion at the official rate of the National Bank of Ukraine. • Ideological – public support, approval of armed aggression against Ukraine and the genocide of the Ukrainian people. This is the mass media sec - tor, bloggers and everyone else who is engaged in propaganda of Russian directives. Currently, the High Anti-Corruption Court has consid - ered 70 suits. Sanctions in respect of confiscation of assets have been imposed on public and political figures of the Russian Federation, business representatives of the Russian Federation, collaborators, university rectors of the aggressor state, Russian state companies, a

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