President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with members of the McFaul-Yermack sanctions group. The meeting was also attended by Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council Oleksiy Danilov, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, deputies and advisors to the Head of the Presidential Office, Deputy Minister of Justice Iryna Mudra, and President of the Kyiv School of Economics Tymofiy Mylovanov.
They discussed the results of the sanation group's activities and its further tasks. The head of the Presidential Office, Yermak, posted this on Telegram.
"Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the importance of strengthening sanctions against the energy sector of Russia. He emphasised the inadmissibility of supplying components and spare parts used for the production of missiles and drones to the aggressor country," Yermak said.
According to him, Zelenskyy noted that Russia is directing weapons against Ukraine's energy infrastructure, so this issue is of particular importance ahead of the autumn-winter period. In addition, it is important to strengthen sanctions against the financial and banking sectors.
"Michael McFaul emphasized the importance of depriving the Russian regime of funds spent on waging an aggressive war against Ukraine. The blocked assets of Russia cannot be returned to the aggressor state under any circumstances, but should be used to restore Ukraine. Every Russian company and individual operating in the aggressor country should feel the consequences of the sanctions," added Yermak.
He noted that thanks to the group's work, an embargo on crude oil and petroleum products, a price cap mechanism for oil, and more than $300bn of the Central Bank of Russia's assets were immobilised, as well as sanctions against Russian propagandists and a ban on Russian-language media in a number of EU countries. Currently, the International Working Group is working on imposing sanctions against Rosatom, software restrictions, further energy sanctions, and effective restrictions to stop the flow of microelectronics to Russia.
At the end of the meeting, the President presented Michael McFaul with the Order of Merit of the II degree, which was awarded for significant personal merits in strengthening interstate cooperation, support of state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and significant contribution to the popularisation of the Ukrainian state in the world.
The McFaul Yermak Sanctions Group is an international working group of experts on anti-Russian sanctions. The group consists of more than 100 experts working to increase economic pressure on Russia for its full-scale war against Ukraine.