The Kremlin has been bombarding its domestic and international audiences with propaganda that the EU sanctions aren’t hurting Russia’s economy today, but this is patently false. The ninth round will have an even larger impact on the troubled Russian economy, but they need to be enforced more stringently.
EU sanctions against the Russian Federation and Belarus have been the first example of war sanctions which are directly targeted against a country responsible for violation of the most basic foundations of the UN Charter and peace. And it is devastating the Russian economy today.

The 9th package of EU sanctions against Russia is a very recent example. The latest batch includes new individual designations, including the members of the Russian Armed Forces who are responsible for missile strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, Russian banks and broadcasters, additional bans on arms technologies, as well as a prohibition exporting components for drones, etc.
Bohdan Bernatskyi
Future of Ukraine Fellow
Bohdan Bernatskyi is a Visegrad Insight Fellow as of 2022. As a Senior Lecturer at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (and Ostroh Academy) he teaches Diplomatic Law, Public International Law, Countermeasures and Law of Treaties. In 2019, he defended PhD thesis on banning political parties in Ukraine and abroad. Since then, Bohdan has become a member of the Parliamentary working group on reforming party legislation in Ukraine.
Bohdan serves as an independent Legal Consultant at Project Expedite Justice (2022-currently), Future of Ukraine Fellow at Visegrad Insight (2022-currently). He was a Legal Adviser to Ukrainian MPs (2020-2022), and Democracy Reporting International (2015-2019).
His professional track of record includes thorough expertise in the fields of sanctions and transitional justice initiatives. He is the author of the complex changes to Ukrainian sanctions infrastructure which aimed at converging UA foreign policy tools to EU best practices. Given EU candidate status to Ukraine, the idea to deepen cooperation within EU-UA CFSP, including sanctions, will gain more currency.
Bohdan participated as an Independent Expert in the transitional reform group launched by the Ministry of Reintegration of Ukraine. All efforts related to building solutions for sustainable peaceful reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine was brutally interrupted by Russia on February 24th, 2022. The aftermath of the war will require harder approaches to transitional measures and Bohdan will contribute to this development.
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