“Ukraine Bans Import of Fuel of Unknown Origin to Prevent Circumvention of Russian Sanctions”

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Ukraine has banned the import of fuel of unknown origin to prevent Russian energy resources from entering the market in circumvention of sanctions.

About it informed Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolesnik, Head of Ukrnafta Sergei Koretsky.

The Cabinet of Ministers at a meeting on Tuesday supplemented Decree No. 1147 on the ban on the import of goods from the Russian Federation with a ban on the import of fuel of unknown origin. As Kolesnik noted, this was necessary in order to block the entry of Russian fuel, oil and oil products into Ukraine.

The ban will apply to the following products:

• Crude oil and oil products obtained from bituminous rocks;
• oil and oil products obtained from bituminous rocks, other than crude, and products containing 70 wt.% or more of oil or oil products;
• petroleum gases and other hydrocarbons in the gaseous state;
• alternative motor fuel;
• biodiesel and mixtures thereof, not containing or containing less than 70 wt.% of oil or oil products obtained from bituminous rocks.

Despite the sanctions, fuel of Russian origin ended up in the EU countries, Turkey and other countries, from where it was sent to the Ukrainian market as a resource of uncertain origin, Kolesnik explained. Such a resource is sold at a discount, which makes alternative supply routes economically unprofitable, which caused a significant risk of destabilizing the fuel market.

According to Koretsky, Russian liquefied gas began to appear in Ukraine in the fall of 2022 under the guise of products from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. At the same time, according to the documents, Russian diesel was sent from Albania, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, and India.

“Not all of these countries have oil refining at all. It was cheap, so some traders turned a blind eye to cooperation with the enemy. From now on, loopholes are closed,” Koretsky said.

He explained that the customs authorities will require a certificate of the country of origin of the fuel when registering petroleum products. Only those oil products that have documents from the manufacturing plant will be able to enter the country.