International NGOs released a statement calling on all EITI supporting companies and governments to take real actions to stop supporting Russia in its aggression against Ukraine

Civil society calls on EITI for efficient actions to stop Russian aggression in Ukraine

Ahead of the 53rd Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Board meeting, non-governmental organizations from all over the world released a statement calling on all EITI supporting companies and governments to take real actions to stop supporting Russia in its aggression against Ukraine. With this regard, on June 16th, 2022, they organize an activist art installation with a press briefing aimed to call on international energy-producing corporations and energy traders to discontinue operations in Russia and with Russian fossil fuels and disclose information about doing business in or with Russia.

Energy producers and energy traders should discontinue their business with Russia and in Russia

The production and export of hydrocarbons continue to finance Russia's war against Ukraine and the killing of Ukrainian people and children – representing gross and systematic violations of international law. As well as the humanitarian imperative, there is also a strong business case to act now. The economic impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine is already visible in the global economy. According to a World Bank assessment, Europe and Central Asia economies are already forecast to shrink by 4.1 percent this year, compared with the pre-war forecast of 3 percent growth.

As EITI Board meets on June 16-17th, 2022, in Brussels, in the name of advancing accountability, in the statement, civil society calls on extractive sector companies and governments to more effectively refuse all engagement with the Russian oil and gas industry via sanctions and the full discontinuation of business relations. The campaign is organized by We are Ukraine/One Philosophy, DiXi Group, Promote Ukraine (Brussels) and has collected signatories among major non-governmental organizations across the globe.

Since Russia has waged the full-scale war in Ukraine, the EU has imported 61 percent of fossil fuels exported via shipments and pipelines from Russia, worth approximately 57 billion EUR. And the EU response is still insufficient, as it only includes an embargo on coal and a partial embargo on oil and refined products (only on maritime supplies) with no immediate effect.

Despite their commitments to stop business with Russia, many energy companies, including Shell and TotalEnergies still continue to supply huge volumes of Russian oil under long-term contracts. Meanwhile, three of the world’s largest commodity traders — Vitol, Trafigura and Glencore — transported more oil from Russian ports in March 2022 than they had done in the same period over at least the last three years.

Moreover, between 2014 and 2021, giants such as Shell, Exxon, and BP contributed $100 billion to Russia's military machine, enabling the current war against Ukraine and the whole civilized world. In addition, companies do not seem willing to disclose information regarding their current and planned activities in Ukraine and/or Russia. According to the BHRRC outreach, out of 21 EITI supporting companies approached, 12 answered the survey with only Chevron and Gunvor providing a full response.

“One of the key EITI principles says EITI affirms management of natural resource wealth for the benefit of a country’s citizens is in the domain of sovereign governments to be exercised in the interest of their national development. We believe it means no natural resource would serve the war. Therefore, we call on extractive companies and governments to make not only statements on their concern but also real actions to stop supporting Russia in its aggression against Ukraine. With hundreds of Ukrainians dying every day and thousands of Ukrainians being tortured and abused, this is too high a price for some governments and companies to continue buying Russian hydrocarbons”, – commented Olena Pavlenko, President of DiXi Group, on behalf of non-governmental organizations.

In particular, signatories of the statements demand to:

immediately discontinue both new and existing business in Russia and with Russian fossil fuels, including exploration, production, and trading activities.
immediately disclose and regularly update information regarding business with Russia so as to ensure accountability in line with the EITI principles, including the status of any equity holdings and operations in Russia; divestment decisions and processes (including human rights due diligence); payments to the Russian state and Russian state-owned companies, disaggregated by the project; and, for commodity trading, the term contracts, other ongoing offtake obligations and sale-level volume and payment data in line with the EITI guidelines on first-trade transparency.
end to the financing of aggression and to unite in imposing real and effective sanctions against Russia, including the prevention of bypassing those sanctions already introduced.

We invite media to attend an activist art installation and press briefing on June 16th, 2022

To attract attention to their statement, organizations are holding the activist art installation dedicated to the opacity of international energy-producing corporations and energy traders who continue to work in or with Russia despite all of Russia's war crimes in Ukraine. It will be held on 16th June, from 7 am to 12 pm, on Waterloolaan 31 te 1000 Brussel Passage de Milan, Brussels, next to Egmont Palace, where the EITI Board meeting will take place.

We invite media to attend the installation and a press briefing with Oleksiy Orlovsky, program director of the International Renaissance Foundation, one of the initiative representatives. Feel free to come at 8:15 am, the press briefing starts at 8:30 am.

Oleksiy Orlovsky as well as Olena Pavlenko, president of DiXi Group, are also available for comments on June 14-15th via Zoom.

Registration for the press briefing and/or interviews with speakers is open via the link: https://forms.gle/g3YJvQHdbZQSu2wa6.

For media inquiries, please, contact:

Oksana Ryabchun, DiXi Group [email protected]

Yana Brovdiy, Promote Ukraine [email protected]

Yaryna Martyniuk, We Are Ukraine [email protected]

About DiXi Group

DiXi Group is a Ukrainian think tank involved in research and consultations in the energy sphere – at the crossroads of politics, public relations, safety, and investments.
It combines both professional analysis of performance and reforms in the specific sector and wider tasks – strengthening transparency and accessibility of energy policy, improved governance, and cooperation of the government with the public and business.
DiXi Group works both with specific amendments to the legislation that need to be introduced in order to improve the sector’s performance, and with more general topics such as Ukraine-EU-Russia relations, and regional energy policy.

About Promote Ukraine

Promote Ukraine is an independent media and civil society platform that gives voice to experts from Ukraine and the EU on the issues relevant to both parties. It is a politically and governmentally independent organization with a seat in Brussels.
Promote Ukraine seeks to facilitate relations between the European Union, its member states, and Ukraine by walking the paths of culture, know-how, organization, cooperation, information, and entrepreneurship. The long-term perspective of Promote Ukraine is to establish a network “Successful Ukrainians – Prosperous Ukraine” – a network of people who are ready to use their skills and time in benefit of Ukraine.

For more information, visit Promote Ukraine official website as well as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube pages.

About We Are Ukraine

WeAreUkraine.info is an English-language repository of truth about Ukraine and a global engagement platform created to bring about lasting peace after the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The platform includes news of the Russia Ukraine war and examples of support from the world community, it tracks the war’s impact on the lives of Ukrainians and the Ukrainian stories of resilience and produces explainers on Ukraine’s culture, history, economics, etc. It is also a portal for calls to action designed to mobilize people around the world to counter russia’s unprovoked aggression and bring it to responsibility for the crimes committed by its citizens against Ukrainians.
The project was launched on March 3, 2022, in response to the need to increase shareable and aesthetically designed English-language information disseminating the truth about events in Ukraine by the team of One Philosophy consulting group and IT company Empat supported by volunteers.
Follow news on the We Are Ukraine website as well as Instagram and LinkedIn pages.