On the SFMS current international activities

Since the beginning of the russian military aggression, the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, as a financial intelligence unit of Ukraine, has been making maximum efforts of an international nature in clear coordination with other state authorities to bring to strict responsibility russian federation (RF) and its henchman republic of belarus (RB) for their crimes against peaceful humanity, including for financing of terrorism and financing of weapons of mass destruction.

In the direction of international activities, a wide range of measures is being taken aimed at depriving RF and RB of their financial and economic potential to continue the bloody aggression in Ukraine and the inevitability of full compensation for all the damage that was caused by their bloody actions on our land.

In general, the SFMS implements a range of strategic international events, consisting in the following.

1. Exclusion of RF from MONEYVAL

On February 25, 2022, with the SFMS active coordination work, RF's membership in the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL) (Consequences of the suspension of a member State under Article 8 of the Statute of the Council of Europe) was suspended.

Later, on March 16, 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to exclude RF from the organization. Accordingly, RF is excluded from MONEYVAL as a working body of the Council of Europe. Under such conditions, RF is deprived of the right and opportunity to influence anti-legalization measures within the Council of Europe.

2. Regarding the sanctioning of RF (exclusion of RF from FATF and inclusion of RF in the FATF blacklist)

- The SFMS has sent three appeals to FATF concerning exclusion of RF from the FATF and inclusion of RF in the FATF blacklist. On March 4, 2022, based on these appeals, FATF published a Public Statement in connection with the tragic events in Ukraine (http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/fatfgeneral/documents/ukraine-2022.html). FATF states that RF's actions are contrary to the FATF's basic principles and are a flagrant violation of its obligations to implement and support FATF standards. FATF is currently reviewing RF's role in the FATF's work, as well as will be considering measures necessary to comply with the FATF's basic principles.

- The SFMS has introduced constant communication with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and sent appeals in order to strengthen communication with Ukrainian embassies abroad, including by bringing to the attention of the countries of the world the need to disseminate information for participants in the financial and non-financial sectors of the relevant countries on the exponentially increasing risks of transactions carried out with the participation, on behalf of and in the interests of the subjects of financial and economic relations of RF;

- on March 11, 2022, the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine sent an appeal to FATF with a request to include RF in the FATF blacklist and exclude RF from its membership.

- on March 15, 2022, the SFMS sent a number of official letters to MEPs with a request to assist in a positive consideration of the FATF's exclusion of RF from its membership and inclusion of RF in the FATF blacklist.

- The SFMS notified the Ambassadors Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States of America, France, Great Britain and the United Nations on the actions taken by Ukraine to sanction RF and sent a request for assistance.

- The SFMS has processed and supported a petition to include RF in the FATF blacklist posted by https://bit.ly/3wrMU5y (Petition: Expel Russia from FATF and add it to the Black List).

3. Regarding the sanctioning of RB for the support of RF

The SFMS has sent appeals to FATF and Egmont group of financial intelligence units in order to sanction RB in connection with its assistance in the aggression of RF against Ukraine. The appeals relate to inclusion of RB in the FATF blacklist and its disconnection from the Egmont Secure Website and exclusion from its membership.

4. Removal of RF from work in the Egmont group of financial intelligence units

By the submissions of the SFMS, the financial intelligence unit of RF is disconnected from the Egmont Secure Website. In view of this, the FIU of RF is deprived of the right and the opportunity to exchange information within the Egmont group.

5. On preventing the use of crypto-currencies by RF to circumvent sanctions

The SFMS jointly with the team of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, as well as with the key crypto-experts of Ukraine has conducted work on the identification of the list of russian crypto-exchangers related to sanctioned banks (Sberbank and others) in order to completely block their hosting. Following the results of the work conducted, the SFMS sent and is supporting the request to the key American hoster company Cloudflare.

Moreover, due to close cooperation with Ukrainian and world crypto-traders, a mechanism of spontaneous blocking of crypto-wallets of RF was launched.

Thus, the SFMS sent an appeal to the crypto-currency exchange Binance with concrete suggestions on actions aimed to deter RF aggression in the virtual asset market, as a result of consideration of which Binance changed its policy and on March 20, 2022, excluded the possibility of P2P transactions for a number of russian banks and payment systems that were included in the sanctions list.

Separately, an appeal to block the banks of RB, which were included in the sanctions list, was sent to Binance.

6. Exchange of international information

The SFMS is daily contacting with foreign financial intelligence units and relevant financial regulators on the exchange of intelligence information, as well as strengthening financial supervision of businesses having ties with RF.

This work is aimed at preventing the spread of international terrorism, including blocking financial transactions, freezing assets and their subsequent confiscation.

The active international activity of the SFMS will continue in an enhanced regime until Ukraine's complete victory on all fronts.

Glory to Ukraine!