25 May 2018 13:34

Ukraine expands sanctions against Russian defense industry

KYIV. May 25 (Interfax) - Ukraine has expanded and extended by three years, until May 2021, the sanctions it imposed in 2015 and 2017 against Russian enterprises and companies working in the interests of the security and defense sector of the Russian Federation, as well as defense enterprises operating in Crimea.

According to the appendix to Presidential Decree No. 126 33/2018 of May 14 promulgating the May 2 decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), the updated sanction list of Russian defense enterprises includes the Tactical Missiles Corporation (TMC), High Precision Complexes, the Oboronprom United Industrial Corporation, the Research and Industrial Association of Machine Building (MIC NPO Mashinostroyenia) Military-Industrial Corporation, the United Engine Corporation (UEC), the Kalashnikov Concern, the Irkut Research and Production Corporation, the Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company, the Radioelectronic Technologies Concern, the Salut Research and Production Center for Gas Turbine Building, the Navis Design Bureau of Navigation Systems, the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Digital Arms and Protection, Concern Aviation Equipment, the Optics Research and Production Association, the Kosmos Production Association, and Molot-Oruzhie.

Also included are companies sanctioned in 2015: the state-owned Rostec, Rosoboronexport, the Rostov-based helicopter plant Rostvertol, the Izhmash Concern, KAMAZ, Almaz-Antey, Russian Helicopters, the Kazan Helicopter Plant, and the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant.

The updated list also includes the Crimean enterprises on which sanctions were imposed in 2017, including the Sevastopol Aviation Enterprise, the Yevpatoria Aircraft Repair Plant, the Feodosia Optical Plant, Fiolent, TsKB Chernomorets, the More Shipyard, the Sudokompozit Design and Technology Bureau, the Helicopter Research Center, and the Vzlet Feodosia State Flight Test Enterprise.

Ukraine stopped exporting military and dual-purpose goods to Russia in 2014. The ban on military-technical cooperation with Russia, including the supply of dual-purpose products, is stipulated by the Ukrainian presidential decree of August 27, 2014, approving the decision of the Ukrainian NSDC of August 27.

In May 2015, the Ukrainian government severed its 1993 intergovernmental agreement with Russia in the sphere of military-technical cooperation. In August 2015, it withdrew from the 1993 intergovernmental agreement with Russia on industrial and technological cooperation between defense enterprises.

In August 2017, the Ukrainian government severed the 2003 intergovernmental agreement with Russia on cooperation in the export of military products to third countries. In October, it severed the 2000 intergovernmental agreement on the preservation of specializations of enterprises and organizations involved in the production of military-purpose products, and in November it severed the 2005 intergovernmental agreement governing the procedure for supplying weapons and military hardware, components, and military services.

On May 22, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada passed on the first reading a bill exempting enterprises of the Ukroboronprom State Concern of their obligations under the severed contracts in the sphere of military-technical cooperation with Russia. According to the estimates stated at a parliamentary session, the debts Ukraine's defense enterprises owe Russia over the severed contracts, including fines and penalties, now total about 3.8 billion hryvni.