Restrictions remain in place on the former Ukrainian president who’s accused of supporting Putin, despite a legal ruling yesterday in his favour
ADVERTISEMENTFormer Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr remain under EU sanctions despite a court ruling yesterday (20 December), a spokesperson for the European Commission has said.
The bloc has brought in travel bans and asset freezes on nearly 2,000 Russia-linked people and companies in retaliation for the annexation of Crimea and subsequent invasion of Ukraine.
But an EU court yesterday struck down the 2021 decision to list the pair, siding with the ex-president's arguments that he hadn’t been given a fair trial in Ukraine.
Yanukovych and his son “remain listed under the Ukraine territorial integrity sanctions regime,” Peter Stano, the Commission’s lead spokesperson for foreign affairs told Euronews in an emailed statement, adding that the 20 December judgment “does not affect this.”
“Member States in the Council are making every effort to ensure that listings meet all legal requirements as defined by the EU Courts,” Stano added, after the General Court criticised the original rationale for imposing sanctions.
Yanukovych has been found guilty of treason by a Ukrainian court, in a trial which his lawyers argued was politically motivated and procedurally unfair. The EU Court said the Council should have checked he’d had the right to defend himself when it sanctioned him in 2021.
In August 2022, the EU Council again sanctioned the pair, saying the ex-president had called on Russia’s Vladimir Putin to send troops into Ukraine.
The Council cited Oleksandr Yanukovych as having business ties with pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
Yanukovych and his son have also appealed against the August 2022 listing, in two cases that haven’t yet been heard.