The Ukrainian foreign minister strongly criticised the EU's decision, at the request of France and Luxembourg, to remove oligarchs Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the sanctions list, calling it shameful and unjustifiable.
In response, Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden said:
"When other countries asked to start changing the list, in this case, France and Slovakia, Luxembourg also requested, for reasons related to the country's best interests and to avoid harm to the country, that a discussion be held regarding another person on the list."
The list was extended for three years, without the two aforementioned businessmen.
"Among them is the one who demanded 16 billion from Luxembourg. And as I said, in the best interests of the country, we made this decision, after also discussing it with many other people", Frieden clarified.
Regarding whether Mikhail Fridman had committed to withdrawing his complaint, the Prime Minister declined to comment to the press on this matter. He did, however, specify that Luxembourg had reaffirmed its support for Ukraine in recent days. Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel also met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
