On March 11, 2022, Treasury issued Ukraine General License 23, authorizing transactions, “including the processing and transfer of funds, payment of taxes, fees, and import duties, and purchase or receipt of permits, licenses, or public utility services,” by nongovernmental organizations in the covered regions of Ukraine (i.e. the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic or Luhansk People’s Republic regions of Ukraine, as well as any other regions designated by the Secretary of the Treasury) in support of humanitarian aid, democracy building, human rights, education, non-commercial development, and environmental and natural resource protection.
Alongside this new general license, Treasury also updated FAQ 1007, summarizing this and previous general licenses relating to Ukraine.
Following previous general licenses for Ukraine, General License 23 represents an important step in broadening protections for essential civil society activities in Ukraine in the midst of this war. Notably, Treasury took a very similar approach in Afghanistan with General License 19, indicating a welcome broadening of Treasury’s approach to licensing across multiple contexts.
Treasury can further support essential civil society activities in Ukraine with additional general licenses to explicitly protect peacebuilding, conflict mitigation and atrocity prevention activities.