U.S. Treasury imposes sanctions against number of individuals, organizations from Ukraine for meddling in elections

Washington has included 11 individuals and organizations in the sanctions list for Ukraine, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said on Monday.

Seven citizens of Ukraine and Ukraine-based four organizations fell under the sanctions, according to the U.S. Treasury. In particular, this is about the news agency "Only News," the website "Nabu Leaks," the companies "Era-Media TOV" and "Skeptik TOV."

These measures were imposed against them because Washington believes that they interfered in the U.S. election process.

Among the individuals in the sanctions lists were MP from the Servant of the People faction, deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Oleksandr Dubinsky; former chairman of the Ukrainian Association of Energy Engineers Dmytro Kovalchuk; senior prosecutor of the Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Kostiantyn Kulyk, who was responsible for the investigation of economic crimes of the Yanukovych regime in 2016-2019; former MP Oleksandr Onyschenko; former beneficiary of the Radio-Era television and radio company Anton Simonenko; former diplomat, employee of the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States in 2015-2016 Andriy Telizhenko; Head of the Skeptic and Only News companies Petro Zhuravel.

According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, these individuals are associated with Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach, against whom the United States imposed sanctions in September 2020 "for trying to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election." The Department of the Treasury calls Derkach himself "agent of the Russian intelligence services" in the press release. The Era-Media LLC and the NabuLeaks website are also associated with Derkach.

Thus, according to the Treasury, "all property and interests in property of these targets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them." Additionally, "any entities 50% or more owned by one or more designated persons are also blocked," the department said. Individuals and organizations from Ukraine, against whom the United States is imposing sanctions for interfering in the U.S. elections, were part of the Russian Federation's campaign to influence the U.S. electoral process, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said in the press release.

"Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy. The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our election systems and processes," Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement.