07.07.2025 10:13
Ukraine has imposed sanctions on sixty cryptocurrency companies for allegedly facilitating Russia's circumvention of international financial restrictions. This sweeping action, formalized by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's signature on Decree No. 465/2025, targets fifty-five Russian entities and five international firms.
The sanctions, implemented by Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, encompass the freezing of assets and a complete prohibition of these entities' economic activities within Ukraine. Furthermore, Kyiv plans to collaborate with its international partners, including the European Union and the United States, to ensure the imposition of similar restrictions globally.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine's commissioner for Sanctions Policy, detailed the sanctioned companies' roles in Russia's efforts to evade sanctions. Five cryptocurrency exchanges, he revealed, aided Russian entities in circumventing these restrictions; nineteen were implicated in cryptocurrency mining operations designed to bypass sanctions; and seventeen operated digital asset issuance systems already subject to US sanctions. The remaining nineteen firms participate in various aspects of the Russian financial system, ranging from payment equipment manufacturing to facilitating sanctioned international transactions.
Remarkably, the five non-Russian entities included in the sanctions list—Token Trust Holdings Limited (Cyprus), EXMO RBC Limited (Kazakhstan), AWX Solutions, Crypto Explorer DMCC, and Bitpapa IC FZC (UAE)—are also already under US sanctions. This underscores the international coordination against illicit financial activities.
In a separate address, President Zelenskyy emphasized the sanctions' foundation in recommendations from the National Bank of Ukraine and collaboration with international partners. He highlighted the significant scale of Russia's alleged illicit financial activity, stating that billions of dollars intended for military purposes had flowed through a single sanctioned company since the beginning of the conflict. This revelation underscores the severity of the situation and the importance of these international countermeasures.
