Kyiv tells Brussels that lifting sanctions against oligarchs is “unacceptable”

Otwo oligarchs, Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, “were included in the list because they are part of Russia’s aggressive regime, which conducts a war of aggression against Ukraine”, wrote on social media X the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Andrii Sybiha.

“What has changed? Nothing. A withdrawal from the list is unacceptable and would send a bad signal to Moscow precisely when the pressure should increase,” he said.

The European Union continues today to seek an agreement on the renewal of sanctions against Russia, blocked several days ago by a request from France to exempt the Russian-Usbek multimillionaire Alisher Usmanov, invoking “national security reasons”.

According to the Financial Times, Paris is pressing for an agreement for the release of prisoners involving several French citizens detained in Azerbaijan.

Luxembourg, for its part, requested the withdrawal of Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman from this list of sanctions if the 27 accept Usmanov's.

Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had expressed concern about this situation, arguing that it was not “certainly the time to lift sanctions”, “save the Russian oligarchs from sanctions” and “give gifts to Russia”.

EU sanctions against Russian personalities consist of freezing their assets and a ban on entry into the European area.