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Ukraine lists owner of AliExpress as 'international sponsor of war' — NACP

The agency claimed that the platform allegedly censored various Ukrainian content on its sites

MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has listed the Chinese group of companies Alibaba Group Holding Limited as an "international war sponsor," according to the agency's website. Alibaba Group Holding Limited owns the largest online commerce platform AliExpress.

As the reason for such a decision the NACP named continuation of the company's operation in Russia, in particular, the provision of a platform for the sale of goods produced by the Debaltsevo Metallurgical Machine Building Plant in the People’s Republic of Donetsk (DPR). According to the agency, the Russian subsidiary Alibaba.com (ru) manages the AliExpress platform. The agency also claimed that Alibaba allegedly censors various Ukrainian content on its sites.

In July, NAPC added one of the world's largest port operators DP World (UAE) to this list. This list includes the Austrian banking group Raiffeisen Bank, Procter&Gamble, OpenWay Group, TMS Tankers, Minerva Marine, Thenamaris Ships Management, Delta Tankers, Dynacom Tankers Management, Leroy Merlin, ComNav Technology, eKassir, Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry, Auchan, Hungarian OTP Bank and others.

In February, President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky, in response to a petition, instructed the government to work out options for labeling goods of foreign companies operating on both the Russian and Ukrainian markets. The author of the public appeal pointed out that the majority of foreign companies have retained their presence in Russia, and they still remain leaders in their segments in Ukraine. He suggested obliging such companies to mark goods imported to Ukraine with a special label.

According to the information published on the NAPC website, the main purpose of the sanctions lists is to inform the governments of Ukraine's partner countries and citizens about the already imposed sanctions and to call for expanding the sanctions lists against persons supporting Russia. The agency indicates that in this case there is an opportunity "to quickly synchronize the sanctions lists and limit the possibility of circumventing sanctions."