Russia has left North Korea, Iran, Syria and Iran behind in ‘the most sanctioned country ever’ competition. The number of sanctions Russia received since February 24 has reached 8,000, and continues to grow.
Ukraine is still the biggest sufferer of the war, not the sanctioned Russia. Sanctions have started to hurt Russia, but it’s a mixed picture. Notoriously, Russia’s pipeline gas revenue is still up and fetching much higher prices compared to a year ago. In January 2022, Russia earned $ 9.5 billion from the pipelines, compared to $ 3.4 billion a year earlier. The World Bank is now predicting the Russian economy will shrink by 11 percent in 2022, but Ukraine is likely to face a 45 percent contraction.
Since the biggest consumers of Russian gas are the EU states, there is still potential to further pressure the aggressor. Notably, the energy embargo has not been fully imposed by the EU. The European Commission’s most recent – sixth – round of sanctions against the Russian Federation will include restrictions on gas and oil exports and, hopefully, a much stronger cooperation to improve implementation of the already imposed restrictions.
How will the upcoming sixth round of sanctions hit Russia? What further restrictions on the aggressor will help Ukraine’s victory? See in Ukraine in Flames #33.
Speakers:
- Hennadiy Chyzhykov, President of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Ukraine
- Oleksiy Honcharenko, Ukrainian MP, Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe
- Dmytro Boiarchuk, Executive Director of CASE Ukraine
- Ivanna Klympush-Tsyntsadze, Ukrainian MP, Head of the committee for integration of Ukraine to European Union.
UKRAINE IN FLAMES project is created by Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Ukrainian Catholic University’s analitical center and NGO “Euroatlantic Course”. We are aiming at searching a loud support for Ukraine in the war started by Russia on the 24th of February 2022.
If you want to support Ukraine against Russian aggression, check the link with recommendations by Ukraine Crisis Media Center – https://uacrisis.org/en/help-ukraine.
NGO Euroatlantic Course collects donations to support Ukrainian Army and civilians – https://eac.org.ua/en/main-page/.