In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the early months of 2022, a spate of countries, including the United States, have imposed several packages of sanctions on Russia and Russian officials. These sanctions ranged from bans on the provision of various types of professional services in Russia to prohibitions on oil imports and trading of petroleum products from Russia. In this episode, In the Public Interest co-host Felicia Ellsworth is joined by Counsel Georgia Tzifa and Mariia Shulha, a Ukraine-trained lawyer at WilmerHale, who both focus their practices primarily on international trade matters. Shulha had lived and worked in Kiev for five years until she was forced to leave her home and resettle in Brussels after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ellsworth, Tzifa and Shulha discuss WilmerHale’s work advising clients on sanctions compliance. They talk through the scope of the sanctions imposed by Western countries following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the differences between these recent sanctions and previous sanctions levied in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Shulha also shares about her background as a lawyer who cut her teeth in international trade law through government service and how her experience living through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has informed her private practice at WilmerHale.