The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has adopted the resolution “On banning exports of goods from Ukraine to the customs territory of the russian federation”. The Government made the relevant decision at its meeting on 27 September.
The resolution provides for banning exports outside the customs territory of Ukraine of goods under foreign economic contracts, the trade or country of destination of which is the russian federation. The resolution will be in effect until the day of termination or abolition of martial law and termination of the russian federation’s unfriendly actions against Ukraine.
“We continue the sanctions pressure against the russian federation. This resolution is another of the many tools of economic influence. We understand that sanctions are a means not only of responding to a military threat but also of preventing aggression in the future. I would like to state that exports of goods to the russian federation were de facto stopped since the beginning of the war. Now it has been legalized,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine.
According to government forecasts, such a decision will not have negative economic impacts. After all, according to statistics, exports of Ukrainian goods to the territory of the russian federation amounted to only 4.2 million US dollars for the period from March to June 2022. It was mostly ferrous metal products worth 4.189 million US dollars and chemical products worth 57.2 thousand US dollars. For comparison: only in January 2022, Ukrainian enterprises exported 250 million US dollars worth of goods to the russian federation.
In addition, the export embargo will help Ukrainian companies that had contractual obligations to business entities of the russian federation to establish legal clarity of non-fulfillment of contracts. And now they will be able to focus their activities on other markets.