The president’s representative called on the EU to strengthen sanctions against Russian metal products

Russia still earns from the export of metallurgical products / photo ua.depositphotos.comVladyslav Vlasyuk, the authorized representative of the President of Ukraine on sanctions policy, said that in 2023, Russia exported to the EU the products of the mining and metallurgical complex (MMC) in the amount of €3 billion, and in 9 months of 2024 – another €2.1 billion. Therefore, sanctions exemptions for some groups of Russian goods, especially for metallurgical products, should be canceled.

“While briefing EU ambassadors yesterday, I separately articulated the injustice of sanctions exemptions for some groups of Russian goods instead of supporting Ukrainian ones. Metals, silicon products, chisel equipment… Instead of sanctioning Russian and buying Ukrainian, they continue to pay billions to Russians. This is unfair,” – said Vlasiuk.

He emphasized that HMC enterprises directly support the Russian military industry. For example, the Russian NLMK Group, owned by the oligarch Lisin, supplies metallurgical slabs to the EU, while at the same time it is a monopoly producer of special electrical steel in Russia (the market share is close to 100%). This steel is critically important for the Russian defense industry.

Due to the current sanctions exemptions (long transition period and comfortable quotas), the EU continues to purchase semi-finished products from Russia. For Ukraine, according to him, this has a threefold negative impact:

War Financing: Sanctions waivers provide Russia with more than €6 billion, which is being used to finance the war against Ukraine.

Russia’s energy revenues: The export of HMC products is an indirect export of approximately 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which brings additional revenues to Gazprom.

Ukraine’s economic losses: Russian products on the EU market are displacing Ukrainian iron ore products and pig iron, causing Ukraine losses of over €1.6 billion.

Vlasyuk proposed to shorten the transition period for slabs, cast iron and DRI until 12/31/2024 (sanctions against them will start after 4 years).

“It is also necessary to introduce personal sanctions against Volodymyr Lisin and the NLMK Group (PJSC Novolypetsk Metallurgical Plant, LLC Viz-Stal, JSC Stoilensky Mining and Processing Plant”), given their significance for Russian aggression. Lisin is a long-time associate of Putin and , according to open data, contributes to the functioning of Russia’s shadow fleet sectoral sanctions against other goods, and individual sanctions against Volgaburmash, Vlasenko says.