Australia Extends Crimea/Sevastopol Sanctions to Donetsk and Luhansk (Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Ukraine Regions) Regulations 2022)

Mechanism

Made under the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 and the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011, the amending regulations extend to Donetsk and Luhansk the sanctions framework Australia had already applied to the illegally annexed regions of Crimea and Sevastopol. Per the explanatory material, the purpose is to respond to Russia's elevated threat to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The instrument commenced 28 March 2022. A companion instrument, the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Russia) Regulations 2022, widened the listing criteria to persons of "strategic and economic significance to Russia" (DFAT page above).

The register's data on the specific goods and services caught is limited to DFAT's sector-level description (transport, energy, telecommunications, oil, gas and minerals); the schedule text of the regulations was not reviewed here.

Downstream implications

• Australian persons are barred from trade in the covered sectors of the two

regions; the direct commodity flow affected is small relative to Russia-wide measures, but it closes a route for energy and minerals dealings.

• Sets the framework later Australian Russia/Ukraine-regions instruments

(e.g. export-sanctioned-goods designations) build on.

Open questions

• Exact scope of the goods/services prohibitions per the regulation schedules.