Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the lifting of EU sanctions against oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman as "suicidal and counterproductive". He announced his position during his meeting in New York with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"At a time when Russia is carrying out brutal attacks on our people and even now, during the General Assembly, airstrikes due to drones and ballistic missiles continue in many regions, signals about lifting sanctions against individual Russian oligarchs seem suicidal and counterproductive", Zelensky wrote on the social network.
"Wars are ended with determination and force, not with leniency towards the aggressor's cronies. I am grateful to Ursula for her willingness to work to include additional Russian names in the EU sanctions lists.
It is precisely such steps that bring us closer to a just peace and guaranteed security," the Ukrainian president urged.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Szybiga also described the exclusion of Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Alisher Usmanov from the European Union sanctions lists as shameful and unjustified.
"Moscow is celebrating because it got what it was striving for: a sense of impunity, humiliation of the EU, and discord among Europeans," Szybiga wrote in X.
He did offer his own version of punishing Russian oligarchs.
"But there is still a way to spoil the celebration in Moscow. "I call on all EU member states to immediately announce the introduction of their national sanctions against these two individuals," Sibiga wrote.
Earlier, EU member state ambassadors agreed to remove Fridman and Usmanov from the sanctions lists, while at the same time extending sanctions against 3,000 Russian companies and individuals for three years.