Typically, sanctions are applied to hostile states and foreign nationals. However, Ukraine has many precedents for sanctioning Ukrainians, such as the most recent high-profile case of sanctions against Poroshenko, a well-known politician and businessman, as well as several other business people. The president explains the expediency of the restrictions by the fact that these individuals are withdrawing funds from our country. Attorney Yulia Kuznets explained to The Page whether there are legal grounds for imposing sanctions on persons with Ukrainian citizenship.
Citizens of Ukraine were deliberately excluded from the above list during the consideration of the draft law “On Sanctions”. This demonstrates the legislator’s unequivocal will to ensure that sanctions against Ukrainian citizens are not imposed. Terrorism is the only exception, as this clause does not specify foreign affiliation exclusively.
According to the lawyer, the impossibility of applying sanctions to Ukrainian citizens seems logical. Sanctions are a tool aimed at individuals who cannot be “reached” by the law enforcement system of Ukraine. Unfortunately, Ukraine does not comply with sanctions legislation in this regard. Indeed, since 2021, there has been a systematic application of sanctions against Ukrainian citizens living and working in Ukraine.
The Supreme Court also interprets the Law on sanctions in its own way. According to some judges, the wording of the grounds for imposing sanctions, such as “actions of other entities that pose real and/or potential threats to national interests, etc.” allows for the imposition of sanctions on Ukrainian citizens in the absence of any terrorist activity. Obviously, the expansion of one provision, “subjects of sanctions,” at the expense of another provision, “grounds for imposing sanctions,” is unacceptable.
