Our goal is to impose sanctions on the entire russian banking system

‘The latest package of sanctions is important because it was imposed on the largest russian bank, which had not previously been subject to US restrictions, as well as on its six foreign subsidiaries and 54 other smaller russian banks,’ said Ukraine's Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova.

After all, Gazprombank is the largest bank through which russia makes payments for its gas and energy sales in general.

According to her, this step significantly limits the Kremlin's ability to conduct international banking operations. In addition, it narrows the circle of those who are willing to cooperate, and thus continue to fuel the russian war machine, because of the threat of secondary sanctions.

‘russian banks enable the criminal authorities in the Kremlin to make payments within the country, as well as in the temporarily occupied territories. They allow the russian federation to sell its raw materials and buy - including bypassing other sanctions - many products and spare parts, and thus finance the war,’ the diplomat said.

In addition, she said, banks are themselves a source of funding for payment gaps. That is, banks are the ‘circulatory system’ of any economy.

‘In order to win, Ukraine needs more weapons on the battlefield, as well as more sanctions against russia, which will reduce its revenues and make it impossible to restore its capabilities. Among the many restrictions in various sectors that we are working on, it is the sanctions against the financial and energy sectors that have the greatest impact on russia,’ Markarova said.

According to her, from the very beginning, the Ukrainian side has been cooperating with American partners to expand restrictions against key russian banking institutions.

‘Our goal is to introduce comprehensive sectoral sanctions against the entire russian banking system,’ the diplomat said.

At the same time, she said, there is still significant untapped potential for economic and financial pressure on russia.

‘As of now, sanctions have been imposed on 118 russian banks, and according to the central bank, there are 317 operating banks in russia. Accordingly, we thank the United States for this powerful decision and continue to work to ensure that restrictions are imposed on 199 other banks that are not yet sanctioned,’ Markarova said.

In addition, there are other priorities in this area. These include continuing pressure on price-cap and imposing sanctions against russia's shadow fleet, which is now virtually entirely responsible for russian oil trade. Restrictions should also apply to buyers of such resources.

‘It is desirable to completely oust the bloody russian oil and gas from the global markets,’ the ambassador said in this regard.

Another focus of attention is sanctions against the russian military-industrial complex, with the main emphasis on blocking the supply of Western components to russia. the russian nuclear sector should also face significant restrictions, in particular, full sanctions against Rosatom and its network. Particular attention should be paid to preventing the supply of high-tech equipment to russia - machines, units, machine tools, etc.

‘Therefore, there is still a lot of work to be done, but the results achieved are also significant,’ Oksana Markarova concluded.

Source: Ukrinform