President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed a decree enacting a new package of sanctions against individuals and entities involved in circumventing international sanctions and financing the Russian military-industrial complex, including through cryptocurrency schemes.
The sanctions were introduced at the initiative of the National Bank of Ukraine. They are an initiative of Ukraine and are simultaneously synchronized with the sanctions packages of its partners.
The sanctions list includes 60 legal entities, among them the largest Russian cryptocurrency miners, operators of information systems issuing digital financial assets, financial intermediaries, and crypto exchanges that provide Russian users with access to currency conversion and facilitate the circumvention of restrictions.
Of these companies, 55 are registered in Russia, three in the UAE, and one each in Kazakhstan and Cyprus.
Among those sanctioned are: an operator of a cross-border settlement platform jointly established by a sanctioned Russian bank and a fugitive Moldovan oligarch; a developer of a nonbank international platform; and other entities involved in developing and implementing mechanisms to bypass sanctions using cryptocurrencies as an alternative payment system.
“Just through one single company, now included in the sanctions list, and only since the beginning of this year, that is, prior to the sanctions being imposed, the Russians funneled several billion dollars, primarily for the needs of their military-industrial complex. Of course, we will shut down all such schemes,” the President noted in his address.
The sanctions also target 73 individuals, all of them Russian nationals – executives and owners of the sanctioned entities, as well as officials from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
According to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine will now work to synchronize these sanctions with those of European and other key international jurisdictions.