He said the sanctions already deprive “the Russian war
machine” of significant funding, adding that this pressure must continue.
Ukraine is also imposing sanctions on “Russian killers who
are organizing the systematic destruction of Ukrainians with drones,” Zelenskyy
said.
“We will work to make our sanctions effectively joint with
our partners, so that the world pressures the aggressor in the ways needed to
weaken Russia’s ability to wage war — and so that Russian murderers truly feel
that pressure,” he wrote.
Zelenskyy said he has set key priorities for Ukraine’s
sanctions policy through the end of the year, including further coordination
with partners, preparing the European Union’s 20th sanctions package, and
tightening measures against Russia’s shadow fleet, its military production,
collaborators, and propagandists.
On Oct. 22, the United States applied its first new Russia
sanctions under President Donald Trump’s second administration, targeting the
country’s largest oil companies — Rosneft and Lukoil.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the
sanctions “due to Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end
the war in Ukraine.”
On Oct. 30, Andrii Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s HUR
Defense Intelligence, said Russia’s oil refining output had fallen by 18% to
20%.
On Nov. 6, The Moscow Times reported that Russia’s federal
budget revenues from oil and gas dropped 21.4%, or 2 trillion rubles, over the
first 10 months of the year — from 9.54 trillion rubles to 7.5 trillion rubles
($92.4 billion).
On Nov. 17, reports said U.S. sanctions against Rosneft and
Lukoil were already cutting into Russia’s oil revenues and driving prices down,
limiting the Kremlin’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.