Ukraine Wants Bankers Jailed For ‘War Crimes’

According to a top adviser to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, major U.S. and European banks should be prosecuted for “committing war crimes” over their financing of trade with the Russian regime. This is the opinion expressed by the individual.

According to Oleg Ustenko, an economic counselor to Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian government believes that banks such as JPMorgan, HSBC, and Citi are assisting the Kremlin in its war operations in Ukraine by financing enterprises that trade oil with Russia.

In a recent interview Zelenskyy said, “Everybody who is financing these war criminals, who are doing these horrific things in Ukraine, are also committing war crimes in our perspective.”

When Ustenko was directly asked if he wants to see these banks prosecuted for war crimes, he responded “exactly” to the question.
According to Ustenko, Zelenskyy is of the opinion that these banks ought to be held liable for the continuation of the struggle and the war in Ukraine.

His remarks were made in response to a report that was published in the Financial Times (FT) the previous week. The report stated that the government of Ukraine had written to the heads of banks in the United States and Europe, such as Jamie Dimon from JPMorgan and Noel Quinn from HSBC, urging them to sever their ties with companies that trade Russian oil. His comments were made in response to this report.

“We are anticipating that the economy of the Ukraine would exhibit a decline on the level of approximately 35-40 percent, which is a significant decline,”
Oleg Ustenko is the President of Ukraine’s go-to economic counselor.

In letters that were reviewed by the Financial Times, Ustenko wrote to the bankers and asked them to stop providing funding to companies that trade Russian oil and sell shares to Gazprom and Rosneft. These are two of the state-backed oil and gas enterprises in Russia.

The Financial Times reports that the letters accuse Citigroup and Credit Agricole of “prolonging” the war by providing financial support to businesses that ship Russian oil. According to reports, the letters also included a warning that the banks would not be permitted to participate in the reconstruction of Ukraine once the war was finished. The government of Ukraine is currently compiling all of the evidence in order to submit it to the International Criminal Court.

In reference to businesses that are providing financial assistance to Russia, he stated that “we are gathering all of this facts.” “The collection efforts are being led by the Ministry of Justice and the Security Service of Ukraine. After that, the International Criminal Court is going to be given this information,” he added.

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It’s not the first time Ukraine has gone after Western corporations for doing business with Russia; in fact, this isn’t even the most recent instance.

The United States government issued a statement in March that was quite critical of major oil companies for continuing to do business with Russia. The statement also issued a warning that some of these companies could find themselves on the incorrect side of history. Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on February 24, according to Ustenko, the war has exacted a tremendous toll on the economy of Ukraine.

“At the moment, we are anticipating that the economy of Ukraine is going to exhibit a decrease on the level of somewhere between thirty-five and forty percent, which is a significant decline,” he stated.

According to him, the reduction can be attributed to the fact that roughly half of the companies “are not functioning today or not able to work at full capacity.”

“When there is a contraction in the economy, there is a corresponding contraction in the government’s revenues. Again, the basis for that is the invasion that Russia conducted,” he continued.