On February 13, it became officially known that Head of State Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law the decision of the National Security and Defense Council to impose sanctions against 91 naval vessels that are part of Russia's shadow fleet.
Points of attention
- The Office of the President of Ukraine vows to provide necessary data to countries associated with the flagged vessels and enhance cooperation with allies for synchronized sanctions.
- Zelensky's decision has been backed by the Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy, highlighting the urgency of sanctioning shadow fleet tankers.
Zelensky tightens sanctions against Russia
The Office of the President of Ukraine draws attention to the fact that sanctioned vessels sail under the flags of about 20 countries.
Among them, only one is the Russian tricolor. As for the others, they are the flags of Panama, Liberia, Cameroon, Barbados, Marshall Islands, Hong Kong, Sierra Leone, Tonga, Palau, Guinea, Comoros, Bahamas, Indonesia, Malawi, Guinea-Bissau, Djibouti, Guyana and Eswatini.
Zelensky's team will provide all necessary data to the authorities of the mentioned countries, and will also strengthen cooperation with allies on further synchronization of sanctions in their jurisdictions.
What is important to understand is that 27 vessels from this list are already under sanctions by Kyiv's partners, and work on imposing sanctions on the remaining 64 will continue.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy's decision has already been commented on by the Presidential Commissioner for Sanctions Policy of Ukraine, Vladyslav Vlasyuk.
According to him, shadow fleet tankers are a key tool for circumventing oil sanctions.
"Therefore, their identification and the imposition of sanctions against them must be carried out quickly and without exceptions. Each such vessel must be considered as an element of financing the Russian military machine," Zelenskyy's advisor emphasized.
