How unfriendly countries continue to profit from Ukrainians and how Kyiv should respond

Monday, 19 May 2025 —

Ukraine has been resisting armed aggression from the Russian Federation for eleven years now.

While in the early years of the war the country's economic policy largely moved inertially, everything changed after 24 February 2022. Clear priorities emerged, preserving the budget, supporting domestic producers and focusing on partner countries.

However, one unresolved issue remains: what should Ukraine’s trade policy be toward countries that support Russian aggression or those that ignore it to preserve their ties with the aggressor?

Read more about the initial steps Ukraine has taken in this direction and what more can be done now in the article by Olena Omelchenko, a partner at the law firm Ilyashev & Partners: War and imports: why Ukraine has the right to close its market to goods from unfriendly countries.

Today, all military expenses are covered by Ukraine’s state budget. Every tax hryvnia means a bulletproof vest, a drone or an evacuation vehicle.

And every hryvnia spent on importing goods from non-allied countries is a wasted resource.

To address this, the President of Ukraine initiated the Made in Ukraine programme – a strategic initiative to support domestic producers and mobilise internal resources.

But this goal is undermined by uncontrolled imports from "neutral" – in reality, unfriendly – states that have neither condemned the aggression, joined sanctions against Russia, nor provided any assistance to Ukraine.

Products from countries that cooperate with Russia or silently enable the aggression often enter Ukraine at subsidised prices, produced under safe conditions, with cheap financing and access to energy resources.

Given this reality, it is especially dissonant that Ukrainian businesses, operating amid war, blackouts and the mobilisation of workers, are forced to compete with imports from states that don't even offer diplomatic support to Ukraine.

Back in 2015, Ukraine banned imports from Russia. But there are still no restrictions on imports from countries that: voted against UN resolutions on Ukraine, continue political or economic cooperation with Russia, maintain a "neutrality" that in practice means supporting the aggressor.

It may seem that as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ukraine is obliged to maintain open trade, even in wartime. But that’s a misconception.

Article XXI(b)(iii) of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) explicitly allows a country to take measures it deems necessary to protect its essential security interests, particularly: "…taken in time of war or other emergency in international relations…"

Protecting the interests of Ukrainian producers in wartime is not only a right – it is the duty of the state.

This is not about blanket restrictions, but about targeted measures affecting specific categories of goods, which Ukrainian producers are capable of supplying; where there is competition with imports from unfriendly countries; where such imports undermine national interests and pose risks to employment, the budget and industry.

These measures may include temporary import duties, licensing of goods from certain countries, quotas or technical barriers.

All of this would fall within the bounds of international law – and serve the national interest.

Restricting imports from unfriendly countries is not about isolation. It is about real support for Ukrainian producers, economic resilience, and the strategic autonomy of a country at war.

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