In framework of permanent communication with United Nations officials, our Association informed this year UN Special Rapporteur on the right to development, Professor Surya Deva, about challenges to sustainable development caused by Russian aggression for his next thematic report, “Financing for inclusive, sustainable and participatory development”.
ARC’s submission on that issue, published at UN official sources now, stressed that Russia illegally transferred own bank institutions to the new occupied territories, including areas of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, with the direct target of undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty in those areas in digital and financial issues.
ARC’s submission described illegal activities of the “International Settlement Bank,” “Sberbank,” and “Promsvyazbank” in the Crimea, Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhya regions that also brutally violate the rights of Ukrainian citizens and legal persons to respect for private and family life, property and correspondence, and to receive and impart information – as all data, collected by this banks, is available on-line for Russian militaries and special services.
ARC’s submission added that “Sberbank” and “Promsvyazbank” are used in Russia-occupied districts for funding Russian army structures and mercenaries, also as for funding the illegal “administrations”. Russian “Sberbank” opened its illegal units in Crimea, especially in its southern part, where its bosses like German Gref have their own criminal “commercial interest,” ARC’s submission stressed.
ARC’s submission stressed that Russian invaders also use for their financial machinations the structures of illegal “Post of Crimea” in Russia-occupied Crimea, parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, illegal “Post of Donbas” and “Post of LNR” in the east of Ukraine, as de-facto structural units of “Post of Russia”.
ARC’s submission pointed out that the unilateral financial sanctions of various UN member states established against Russia and Russia-controlled structures in Ukraine have a strong human rights impact, as they limit the Russian economy and, correspondingly, Russian troops and Russian mercenaries from committing new broad-scale human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide against the Ukrainian population.
Such examples allowed ARC to give some proposals to the UN Rapporteur on issues of sanctions related to conflict in its financial framework. Also, ARC’s submission reminded that Ukrainian authorities adopted some strategic and program documents regarding processes of reintegration of Crimea after its de-occupation that included some aspects of funding the development issues.
Our submission described to the UN Rapporteur the results of four sessions of Strategic Forum “The Future of Crimea, held in 2023-2024 with participation of experts from our Association, where issues of institutionalizationtion of International Crimea Platform and Ukraine’s Peace Formula were discussed, taking into account issues of funding the sustainable development in process of reintegration the Ukrainian territories.
