Sanctions lists. Why Ukraine is in no hurry to supplement the list of individuals and legal entities

By expanding the sanctions list, Ukraine gives its international partners an excuse to impose sanctions against individuals and legal entities as well. In practice, the procedure for expanding the list of those subject to restrictive measures takes a long time. One example is the activities of the agricultural holding of Serhiy Groza and Volodymyr Naumenko GNT Group, companies from which appear in criminal proceedings on gray exports, international scandals with U.S. lenders and violating the ban on cooperation with sub-sanctioned enterprises, writes UNN.

The Council of the European Union has extended sanctions against Russia imposed in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. The restrictive measures will remain in effect until June 23, 2025, according to a press release from the EU Council.

It is not the first year that Kiev's Western partners have been imposing and extending sanctions both against Russia and against individuals and legal entities associated with the aggressor country or actively cooperating with it. But to expand these lists, they need a reason - the inclusion of a new person in the sanctions lists in Ukraine. After all, today the procedure for including new persons in the sanctions lists is such that first restrictions must be imposed on them on the territory of Ukraine. However, as practice shows, companies that violate the law on sanctions in terms of cooperation with sub-sanctioned companies continue to operate quietly on the territory of our state.

According to UNN, Ukraine has an extensive network of companieswith Russian roots.  At first glance, the seemingly inconspicuous companies, which are part of or do business with the GNT Group holding of Odessa businessmen Serhiy Groza and Volodymyr Naumenko, operate in the agricultural sector, which is now of strategic importance in terms of filling the budget of our country, against which Russia has decided to launch a large-scale war.

UNN also revealed that companies controlled by Groza and Naumenko cooperated with Black Sea Commodities Trading Limited, a corporation that fell under Ukrainian sanctions in early April 2021. Such cooperation would be surprising if it were not for the fact that the owner of a number of companies from the orbit of Odessa businessmen is the wife of Sergey Groza, Tatyana Gorbunova. According to public registers, she listed her place of registration as St. Petersburg in Russia, which most likely indicates that she has Russian citizenship.

The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine said that it was ready to consider the issue of imposing sanctions on Groza, Naumenko and their businesses after receiving relevant proposals from the Security Service of Ukraine. The SBU is one of the bodies authorized to prepare such documents and, understandably, they do not announce in advance who will be next on the blacklist - this is restricted information.

By the way, it is worth remembering that Groza indicated Cyprus as the place of his registration, which gives grounds to say that he has dual citizenship. Therefore, his inclusion in the sanctions lists may be a start to stop the likely offshore activities of the businessman's companies abroad by adding him to the U.S. and EU sanctions.

In addition to the ban on cooperation with companies with Russian roots, companies within the GNT Group structure actively worked with the under-sanctioned smuggler Vadim Alperin.

The active joint activities of companies controlled by Groza and Naumenko with Alperin's company Agiros became known from several criminal proceedings in which they are involved. All of them concern tax evasion through gray export of grain worth millions of hryvnias.

For example, UNN found out that Agiros LLC in 2023 exported from Olympex more than 20 thousand tons of corn to Egypt. It is likely that this is the same grain that was pledged under a loan from an American fund and whose disappearance was reported by Groza and Naumenko.

After all, as the BEB detective reported during the court session in one of the criminal proceedings about the gray export of grain from the "Olympex" terminal, crimes at the grain terminal continue.