The Committee on Law Enforcement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the draft law, which provides for criminal liability for evasion of sanctions. About this reported Andrii Osadchuk, first deputy chairman of the committee.
The initiative belongs to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky — in January 2025, he submitted to the parliament a draft law establishing responsibility for violations of the sanctions regime. The Ministry of Justice emphasizes that the introduction of criminal liability will not only strengthen the political and economic effectiveness of the sanctions policy, but will also create a preventive effect, preventing attempts to violate it.
As the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration – Minister of Justice Olga Stefanishyna emphasized, a similar practice already exists in the countries of the European Union, as well as in the USA and Canada. The Ministry of Justice believes that Ukraine should follow this approach, adapting national legislation to European norms within the framework of the integration course and legal harmonization with the EU.
We will remind that on May 14, the State Geology and Subsoil Service restored the validity of three special permits for the development and extraction of minerals, which were suspended at the beginning of 2024 due to the sanctions imposed on the Dnipro businessman Vadym Yermolaev. Previously, these permits were canceled by the State Geodrama Agency, in particular, in relation to companies related to Yermolayev. In one of them, “Trends System”, the third president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, was among the co-owners.
