Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council has decided to impose sanctions on high-ranking officials and senior officers who betrayed Ukraine during the events of 2014 and supported Russia's aggression.
This was announced at a briefing by NSDC Secretary Oleksiy Danilov on February 26.
Ten people were put on the sanction list and they were deprived of state awards and military ranks, he said.
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Sanctioned officials
On the list are ex-general of the Internal Service Vitaliy Zakharchenko, ex-rear admiral Denys Berezovsky, ex-major general Stanislav Shaportov, ex-major general of justice Serhiy Nyanchur, ex-major general Yuriy Kotovsky, ex-chief of the SBU Security Service of Ukraine, ex-major general Oleksandr Yakymenko, ex-major general Volodymyr Totsky, ex-major general Serhiy Hanzha, ex-vice admiral Serhiy Yeliseyev, and ex-rear admiral Dmytro Shakuro.
"The maximum pool of sanctions that our legislation allows has been applied to them," Danilov said.
The NSDC Secretary clarified that the mentioned persons were not in Ukrainian territory now, but they still own Ukrainian-based assets.
Russian occupation of Crimea
- In February 2014, pro-Russian rallies began to massively take place in Crimea. One of them, in particular, took place in Sevastopol on February 23 when its participants "expressed no-confidence" in the then head of the city administration and "elected" their own head who was a citizen of the Russian Federation, Alexei Chaly.
- On February 26, the Russian military from Tolyatti arrived in Crimea under the guise of "maintaining order." On the same day, members of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Crimean parliament) in Simferopol were supposed to hold a special meeting, at which they planned to read out an appeal to the Russian authorities. Meanwhile, pro-Ukrainian activists gathered outside the Crimean parliament's building to counter supporters of Russia. And it all ended with the cancellation of the meeting.
- In the early hours of February 27, 2014, the Crimean parliament's building was seized by the so-called "little green men," who were the Russian military without identification insignias. It was followed by the seizure of the building of the Crimean Council of Ministers.
