The National Security and Defense Council, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, has imposed individual sanctions against 557 international kingpins and 111 gang leaders on May 14.
Among those sanctioned, only 15 are Ukrainian citizens. Most of the crime bosses are currently not in Ukraine, according to Zelensky.
“Those who are not in Ukraine, shouldn’t come to visit. Those in Ukraine shouldn’t stay long,” Zelensky said in a video address explaining the sanctions.
According to the president, the sanctions include freezing of assets, blocking of financial operations, ban on entry into Ukraine and deportation of those in Ukraine.
The sanctions were agreed upon during a May 12 afternoon meeting of the National Security and Defense Council. Since February, the council has been meeting almost weekly, usually on Fridays. Since then, the far-reaching council sanctioned lawmakers Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak, shut down their TV channels, ordered the nationalization of Motor Sich, sanctioned smugglers, revoked licenses for the extraction of natural resources, and more.
The basis for the sanctions was the 2020 law that gave a legal definition to kingpins, known in Ukraine as “code-bound thieves” or “thieves in law” — elite crime bosses that are granted a special status of “criminal dignitary.” The law defines them as “people who, due to authority, other personal qualities or capabilities, exercises criminal influence and coordinates the criminal activities of other persons who influence criminal activity.” The punishment for such crime bosses is 15 years in prison.
Sanctions against crime bosses weren’t the only question on the Security Council’s agenda.
Zelensky said that Ukraine has launched the creation of a cyber military unit to defend Ukraine against cyber attacks and will investigate who lives in over 100 state-owned recreation houses and cottages in an elite area outside Kyiv.
According to Zelensky, over 400 hectares of state-owned recreation land are used by former judges, prosecutors, ministers and state officials. They live in large state-owned private houses for years, pay a very low rent, and even get a 50% refund from the state for any renovation they do.
Under former President Petro Poroshenko, “the government legalized the stay on these lands and in these residences, for a very symbolic fee, for a number of obscure people,” said Zelensky.
Zelensky named ex-Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, ex-Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk and ex-Health Minister Raisa Bohatyryova, both from the government of the disgraced former Pesident Viktor Yanukovych, as some of the people who still use the state residences.
The president also named former Deputy Prime Minister Hennady Zubko and Oleksandr Ilyin, head of Bogdan Motors, which was formerly owned by ex-President Petro Poroshenko and is still controlled by his business partners today.
