Two judges of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, O.V. Kryvend and M.V. Mazur, expressed their views on the possibility of challenging the President’s decrees on sanctions in court. Failure to specify or substantiate with evidence during the proceedings the specific actions of an individual that served as the basis for imposing sanctions may constitute grounds for overturning the sanctions decree.

In the context of war and the widespread application of sanctions, this position opens up a fundamentally new arena for law enforcement and legal protection—in particular, it reinforces the idea of the need to ensure transparency, reasonableness, and judicial oversight of governmental discretion even in areas related to national security.

The relevant document has not yet been published in the Unified Register of Court Decisions.

Thus, Judges Kryvenda O.V. and Mazur M.V. argue in their opinion that:

• even with the president’s broad discretion in sanctions policy, his actions must remain within the bounds of the Constitution and the principles of the rule of law;
• courts are obligated to verify that decisions are not arbitrary and that sanctions are not unfounded;
• in this specific case, the state failed to provide sufficient evidence of a threat posed by the individual subject to sanctions; therefore, the claim should have been granted.

It is worth noting that this is the first known instance in which judges of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court have publicly stated the need to grant an appeal and a claim regarding a presidential decree imposing sanctions, thereby calling into question the unconditional nature of the sanctions mechanism. 

The ruling carries both legal and societal significance: it may serve as a basis for legal debate, public oversight of government agencies, and a tool for protecting the rights of individuals who consider sanctions imposed on them to be unfounded and unjustified; it may also be taken into account by the entities that initiated the sanctions when assessing the prospects for their revocation

As a reminder, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently imposed new sanctions. This time, the restrictions were imposed on individuals and companies conducting business in Ukraine’s occupied territories, including Crimea.