A conference was held in Kyiv and was dedicated to the importance of sanctions policy against the Russian Federation. The Trap Aggressor team of the StateWatch think tank presented the results of three years of research work.

“The StateWatch think tank is a Ukrainian public organization that began investigating sanctions policy and Russia in 2022. Over the past 3 years, we have developed dozens of investigations and analytical materials. We work with representatives of the sanctions authorities of Ukraine and other countries, so the work of the public sector in this issue is extremely important,” said StateWatch Senior Analyst Roman Steblivsky. 

During a panel on increasing the effectiveness of sanctions with the participation of Ukrainian intelligence agencies and institutes for the study of Russian weapons, Roman emphasized the need to expand the sanctions lists, because even civilian Russian companies of the Russian arms holding Rostec can serve the Russian military-industrial complex. Earlier, Trap Aggressor published an article about Rostec’s structure based on data from the War & Sanctions portal of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. In addition, during the panel, Steblivsky drew attention to the importance of planning sanction decisions and using sanctions as a tool of economic deterrence. In particular, to limit Russia’s ability to develop deposits of metals such as tantalum and tungsten. Trap Aggressor previously reported on how Russia is building raw material autonomy for war.

During the Fair Play Conference, elements of the latest Russian missiles and drones were demonstrated, including components of the Oreshnik, the X-101 missile that hit the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, fragments of the Iskander-K, Kalibr, Kinzhal, and Shahed.

The EU Special Representative for Sanctions David O’Sullivan acknowledged the difficulty of completely stopping the supply of technology to Russia. The main problems remain:

• The absence of UN sanctions due to Russia’s membership in the Security Council.
• The reluctance of a number of countries to join the sanctions regime.
• China’s active role in replacing Western components with analogues.
• The use of Kazakhstan and Armenia as transit countries.

The economic effect of sanctions

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainian state authorities to respond quickly in implementing decisions on sanctions against Russia and Russian citizens. Also, according to him, it is important to quickly synchronize the sanctions that are being implemented by partner countries against the Russian Federation.

“There are cases when we in Ukraine act faster. And there are cases when partners work more actively against one or another person or direction that deserves strong sanctions. Today we are starting to quickly synchronize. Every necessary decision of partners regarding sanctions against Russia and persons associated with it must be implemented in Ukraine quickly,” Zelenskyy said.

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andriy Sybiga noted that Russia’s active attempts to weaken sanctions and imitation of participation in negotiations indicate the effectiveness of economic pressure.