Ukraine imposes sanctions on de facto officials of two occupied regions of Georgia

The Ukrainian government has imposed sanctions on the de facto officials of Georgia’s two occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali, who visited the country’s rebel-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine in November 2018 to observe the so-called leadership elections.

The list provided by Ukraine sets sanctions on 294 companies and 848 individuals from several countries.

Head of the Central Election Commission of the breakaway Abkhazia region, Tamaz Gogia, de facto MP Almaskhan Ardzinba and a member of the foreign affairs agency of the region Oleg Arshba are on the list.

As for the Tskhinvali region, de facto head of the President’s administration Igor Kozaev, Vice Parliament Speaker Ruslan Tedeev and other de facto MPs will face sanctions.

The sanctions ban entry into Ukraine and taking assets out of the country for three years.

The so-called elections came in the fifth year of a grinding war between Russia and Ukraine, which has killed more than 10,300 people and displaced 1.6 million.