Zelenskyy's advisor accuses US, EU banks of having links with Russian firms & funding war

The Ukrainian government on Saturday, July 16 expressed concerns about the US and European bank links with the Russian oil corporations as the Moscow's forces continue their fierce assault inside the Ukrainian territories.

Ukraine's Economic advisor to the President Voodymyr Zelesnkyy, Oleg Ustenko, in a letter to the European and the US bankers including JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon and HSBC's Noel Quinn, asked to "stop financing" the Moscow companies.

Some of the firms that these banks had association with traded in Russian oil and sold the shares in state-backed oil and gas groups Gazprom and Rosneft, an investigative report by the FT unveiled, Zelesnkyy's office said in a release on Saturday, July 16. 

Ukraine dispatches letter to Citigroup and Crédit Agricole for dealing with Russian firms

A letter was sent to the US banks that included the Citigroup and Crédit Agricole for dealings with the Russian firms. Having business with the Russian companies implied the financing the ongoing war, Ukrainian officials iterated, adding that such dealings would  "prolong" the war by providing credit to Russians.

In a remark to the paper, Ustenko said that Ukraine "intends to sue the banks at the International Criminal Court (ICC) once the war ends," and that "Ukraine's security services were collecting information on the financial institutions supporting Russian fossil fuels." 

"In my view they are committing war crimes because they are helping the Putin regime in this specific way and they are supporting the regime," said the Ukrainian official. Furthermore, he argued in the report that Russian oil and gas revenues fund the war in Ukraine and helps the Russian troops purchase the rockets and missiles that is later used to attack the Ukrainian civilians and armed forces protecting the country. 

As per the wide ranging report, US bank JPMorgan has been extending the credit lines to Vitol, and the Russian Securities investment trust holds stakes in Gazprom, Sberbank and Rosneft that comprise Kremlin's key economic assets.

"President [Zelenskyy's] adviser is particularly angry at JPMorgan," FT reported, adding that that bank had also earlier dispatched a letter stating that the price cap on Russian oil will push the prices to "stratospheric $380/bbl."

Hen then told the paper, infuriated that the note was in fact "scaremongering, based on poor quality analysis." JPMorgan, although argued that it had played a vital role in implementing the EU and US coordinated sanctions against Russia. "Managing these evolving sanctions has been an enormous undertaking for all global financial institutions, who have quickly and diligently implemented multilateral sanctions on Russia's major banks, its central bank, companies and individuals," it said, according to the letter cited by Ft.