U.S. Sanctions 4 Ukrainians for Working with Russia to Destabilize Ukraine

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday announced sanctions
against four current and former Ukrainian government officials for
engaging in “Russian government-directed influence activities” in
the country, including gathering sensitive information about its
critical infrastructure.

The agency said the four individuals were involved in different
roles as part of a concerted influence campaign to destabilize the
nation, while also accusing Russia’s national security authority,
the Federal Security Service (FSB), of recruiting Ukrainians in key
positions to create instability.

Two of the officials, Taras Kozak and Oleh Voloshyn, are alleged
to have worked to amplify false narratives and undermine confidence
in the Ukrainian government, while Vladimir Sivkovich, former
Deputy Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense
Council, attempted to build support for Ukraine to officially cede
Crimea to Russia.

“Russia has directed its intelligence services to recruit
current and former Ukrainian government officials to prepare to
take over the government of Ukraine and to control Ukraine’s
critical infrastructure with an occupying Russian force,” the
Treasury Department said^[1].

Volodymyr Oliynyk, the fourth Ukrainian official to be
sanctioned, acted in cohorts with the FSB in 2021 to collect
information pertaining to critical infrastructure in the country,
which was then used by Russian-backed state hackers to wage a cyber
war against the country.

“As Russia has pursued broad cyber operations against critical
infrastructure, it has focused on disrupting one critical
infrastructure sector in particular: Ukraine’s energy sector,” the
Treasury Department added.

The sanctions come amid mounting tensions^[2]
that Russia is preparing for a possible invasion of Ukraine, and
almost a week after no fewer than 70 Ukrainian government agencies
and private sector organizations fell victim to a coordinated digital assault^[3] that saw the websites
defaced and a destructive malware deployed.