On Tuesday 3 December, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Oleksandr Merezhko, and the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada’s Ukrainian delegation to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, Vadym Halaichuk, called for additional measures to be taken against Russia.
“Sanctions play an essential role in limiting the capabilities of (Vladimir) Putin’s regime”, recalled Mr Merezhko at a meeting with the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. According to him, if sanctions work, Russia learns to circumvent and avoid them, so “everything must be done to paralyse the Russian war machine”, so that it is “toxic for everyone involved”.
He stressed the need to close “the loopholes that still exist and allow the aggressor State to gain access to critical elements via third countries”. According to the Ukrainian MP, sectors such as metallurgy and the nuclear and chemical industries must be restricted, Russian projects abroad blocked, and the Russian ‘phantom fleet’, grain, fertilisers, chrome, titanium and gas sanctioned.
Mr Merezhko and Mr Halaichuk also called for greater efforts to combat sanctions evasion, particularly by countries on the list of high-risk jurisdictions. Mr Halaichuk called for those who circumvent the sanctions to be punished and for “the damage they suffer to be such that they will consider that the game is not worth the candle”. In particular, he felt that China was playing an increasingly obvious role, helping Russia to develop its military-industrial complex and supplying critical raw materials.
Mr Merezhko also hoped that frozen Russian funds - national, and also those of oligarchs - and not only the windfall profits from these assets could be used for Ukraine’s recovery. “We are asking the EU to show the way, secure these assets and ensure that they are used for the reconstruction of Ukraine”, he stressed, arguing that the principle of reparations was enshrined in international law and that it was legal to do so. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)