Parimatch sanction petition gains 25,000 signatures

Under Ukrainian law, a petition that receives 25,000 signatures is delivered to the president for conisderation. Zelenskyy now has 10 days to respond to the petition.

Parimatch suspended its operations in Ukraine in March this year, after Zelenskyy signed Presidential Decree No. 145/2023 into law.

This decree implemented a decision made by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) and saw sanctions placed on 287 companies – including a number of betting entities – and 120 individuals. Upon its implementation, Parimatch was banned from operating in Ukraine for 50 years.

At the time, Parimatch appealed to Zelenskyy to verify the NSDC’s decision, stating that the information taken into consideration by the Council was false.

In a new statement released today (8 June), Parimatch said that the decision to sanction the operator had affected “hundreds of thousands of citizens who can no longer access or retrieve their funds”, adding that “the ban was the result of a flawed and unfair investigation that falsely claimed the company was doing business in Russia”.

Petition details

Parimatch said that the petition also supported Ukraine’s wider effort against the war.

Maxym Liashko, managing partner of Parimatch’s management company Energame, said that Parimatch has supported Ukraine since the invasion.

“We are Ukrainian patriots. Our fellow countrymen and countrywomen unequivocally agree with that,” said Liashko. “We have supported our country against Russia’s full-scale invasion from the first day and immediately moved to terminate any remaining legacy business in the aggressor country.”

Liashko added that he trusts Zelenskyy to review the matter and restore Parimatch’s operations in Ukraine.

“We trust that our president, a champion of the rule of law and liberal democratic values, will do the right thing and order a review of the unjust sanctions that were imposed on us in a flawed and unfair process.”