On September 13, 2026, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Presidential Decree No. 900/2026, putting into force the National Security and Defence Council (NSDC) decision of September 7, 2026 that applies personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) to 20 seagoing vessels. The decree entered into force on the day of its publication, September 13, 2026, and assigns implementation control to the NSDC Secretary.
The designations were proposed by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and adopted under Article 5 of the Law of Ukraine "On Sanctions" (Law No. 1644-VII). A single annex names the vessels. The Cabinet of Ministers, together with the SBU and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), must implement the measures and monitor their effectiveness. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) must inform the European Union, the United States and other states and request analogous restrictions.
What did Decree 900/2026 actually designate?
It designated 20 tankers that, according to the Office of the President, form part of Russia's shadow fleet used to export oil, petroleum products and liquefied gas from Russian ports to India, Egypt and Turkey, sailing under the flags of Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Sierra Leone, Barbados and Palau. The decree body contains no vessel names: the annex is the only authoritative list. Screening tools must ingest that file, not a press summary.
Same-day Decrees 899/2026 and 901/2026 put into force separate NSDC decisions covering other targets. Do not merge those names into this vessel list. Decree 900/2026 is the instrument for the 20 hulls.
Who has to comply, and from when?
The obligation is immediate. NBU-supervised banks, insurers and other financial institutions in Ukraine must screen customers, counterparties, vessels, cargoes and payments against the annex from September 13, 2026. P&I clubs, shipowners, charterers, bunker suppliers and commodity traders with any Ukrainian nexus (a Ukrainian bank, insurer, agent, port call, or a payment through a Ukrainian institution) must treat a match as a restricted party and block the transaction.
Under Ukraine's sanctions architecture, the NSDC decides designations and the President puts them into force by decree. This is a personal package against named vessels, not a sectoral sanction, so it does not wait on Verkhovna Rada approval within 48 hours.
What belongs on the screening list?
Every identifier in the annex: vessel name, IMO number if listed, flag, and any owner, manager or associated party named there. Apply the asset-freeze and transaction-blocking duties in the Law of Ukraine "On Sanctions" to each match. Do not wait for a commercial data vendor to load the file.
Firms with no Ukrainian nexus are not bound by Ukrainian law. They should still load the 20 names: the MFA is now seeking EU and US mirrors, and a later partner designation will hit the same hulls.
Will the EU and the United States mirror these designations?
Point 4 of the NSDC decision instructs the MFA to notify competent authorities of the EU, the United States and other states and to raise equivalent measures. Ukrainian designations do not bind foreign firms until a partner jurisdiction lists the same vessels. Group screening desks should pre-position the annex against EU and US restricted-party data so a mirrored listing is caught on day one rather than after a separate Brussels or Washington publication.
| Date | Instrument | What it does for compliance |
|---|---|---|
| September 7, 2026 | NSDC decision | Adopts SBU proposals and designates 20 vessels under Article 5 of the Law on Sanctions |
| September 13, 2026 | Decree 900/2026 | Puts the decision into force on publication; NSDC Secretary controls execution |
| From September 13, 2026 | Annex screening | NBU-supervised firms and any party with a Ukrainian nexus must freeze and block matches immediately |
| Ongoing | MFA demarche | EU, US and other states are asked to introduce analogous restrictions on the same hulls |
Continuous, per-jurisdiction monitoring surfaces a designation decree like this the moment it publishes on the presidential site, before secondary reporting catches up.
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Verify whether any of the 20 annex vessels, or their owners and managers, appear in your books; apply the freeze from September 13, 2026 and keep the screening timestamp; brief sanctions, marine and commodity teams that Decrees 899/2026 and 901/2026 are different lists; watch EU and US registers for the mirrors the MFA is now seeking. Obsidian tracks these Ukrainian vessel designations, and their partner mirrors, as they publish.
