Brussels accuses former President Yanukovych and his son of ‘undermining’ Ukraine’s independence
The European Council on Thursday added former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Alexander to its sanctions list. They accused the former Ukrainian leader, overthrown in the 2014 coup, of playing a role in “compromising or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine” as well as his “stability and security”.
The board did not explain why exactly Yanukovych was added to the sanctions list, but simply called him “pro-Russian”. Her son was charged with “conducting transactions with separatist groups” in the Donbass.
Previously, the only Ukrainian nationals sanctioned by the EU were those who held various government positions in the territories that Russia took under its control during the military operation in Ukraine, launched on February 24.
Yanukovych was granted asylum in Russia after being forced to flee Ukraine following the Maidan coup in February 2014. In 2019, a Ukrainian court sentenced him in absentia to 13 years in prison for treason . At the time, the former president criticized the Ukrainian authorities for exercising “unprecedented pressure” on the court and said the decision had “nothing to do with the law”
In March this year, some Ukrainian media claimed that Russia was planning to reappoint Yanukovych as Ukraine’s president, offering no evidence to support the claim.
The EU has already targeted Yanukovych and his son. In March 2021, the European Council extended personal restrictions imposed on them in 2014 for alleged embezzlement of Ukrainian state funds, freezing their assets. However, the former president won a court battle against the EC in June of that year.
Yanukovych has yet to comment on the latest EU decision. Neither did the government in Moscow.
Most of those targeted by the personal sanctions imposed by the EU as well as the United States and some of its allies around the world are Russian military commanders and politicians as well as businessmen whom the West has declared close to the Kremlin and their family members.
The latest round of sanctions adopted by the EU in mid-July also involved personal restrictions on Russian actors Sergey Bezrukov and Vladimir Mashkov, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin and Night Wolves motorcycle club leader Aleksandr Zaldostanov, accused of ‘have “Actively supporting Russian state propaganda by publicly denying Ukraine’s right to statehood.”
Russia sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, citing kyiv’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, intended to give the Donetsk and Lugansk regions special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that kyiv’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to save time and “to create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbas republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. kyiv insists the Russian offensive was unprovoked.
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