On October 23-27 this year, the SFMS, under the quota of the Council of Europe's MONEYVAL Committee and with the support of the EU Anti-Corruption Initiative in Ukraine (EUACI) project, took part in the regular FATF Plenary meeting and the relevant Working Groups’ meetings held in Paris, France.

During the FATF Plenary Week, a number of issues related to global measures taken by the FATF and its members in the field of combating money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction were considered, in particular:

- reports on the work of the Working Groups (ICRG, GNCG, RTMG, ECG);

- membership of the Russian Federation (RF) in the FATF;

- report on the mutual evaluation of Brazil, etc.

According to the FATF official statement following the Plenary meeting, the suspension of the membership of the Russian Federation continues to stand. Following the statements issued since March 2022, the FATF reiterates that all jurisdictions should be vigilant to current and emerging risks from the circumvention of measures taken against the Russian Federation in order to protect the international financial system.

As a reminder, according to the FATF's February statement, the FATF is deeply concerned by the reports of arms trade between the Russian Federation and United Nations sanctioned jurisdictions, and malicious cyber-activities emanating from Russia.

Separately, the FATF continues to pay attention to monitoring the global risks of money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing for the international financial system.

In the framework of the meetings, the SFMS held a number of bilateral meetings with delegations of the FATF member countries and other participants of the Plenary, where they emphasized the need for further joint actions to protect the international financial system, including from the risks posed by the RF.

In addition, on October 26 this year, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) (UK) published a column by the Head of the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine, Igor Cherkaskyi, “We Must Go Further to Challenge Russia’s Disregard for International Norms”, which draws attention to the urgent problem of maintaining the security of the Global Network due to non-cooperative actions of the RF.

The State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine will continue to take measures to respond to the risks and threats posed by the RF in the area of money laundering, terrorist financing and financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as to impose sanctions on the aggressor country.