PRESS RELEASE : A group of experts will be established at the Office of the President of Ukraine to analyze the observance of sanctions against Russia – Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The press release issued by the President of Ukraine on 29 March 2022.

An expert group will be set up at the Office of the President of Ukraine within a week to monitor and analyze compliance with international sanctions against Russia. After all, it is important for Ukraine that sanctions packages against the Russian Federation are effective. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his address.

“It is important for us that the sanctions packages are effective and substantial enough, given what is already being done against Ukraine by the Russian Federation. If the sanctions packages are weak or do not work enough, if they can be circumvented, it creates a dangerous illusion for the Russian leadership that they can continue to afford what they are doing now. And Ukrainians pay for it with their lives. Thousands of lives,” the Head of State emphasized.

“Therefore, starting this week, we are creating a group of experts at the President’s Office – Ukrainian and international, who will constantly analyze the sanctions against Russia – what they really influence,” he said.

As Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained, sanctions should work as intended, without any possibility of circumventing them.

The President also stressed that Ukraine would not agree with the passive sanctions position of some entities regarding Russia.

“There should be no “suspended” sanctions packages – that if the Russian troops do something, then there will be some answer… We went through this story last year when we said that strong preventive sanctions against Russia were needed to prevent an invasion. The preventive package was not made. A full-scale war has begun,” the President noted.

According to him, there are now many hints at the possibility of tightening sanctions, such as an embargo on Russian oil supplies to Europe, if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine.

“Doesn’t everything that the Russian military is doing and has already done deserve an oil embargo? Don’t phosphorus bombs deserve that? Don’t the shelled chemical production or nuclear power plant deserve that?” Volodymyr Zelenskyy concluded.