Modern challenges and dangers caused by the emergence of significant transnational phenomena and processes have intensified the development of such a direction of international organized crime and the greatest threat to international security as using weapons of mass destruction. The issue of using weapons of mass destruction has become especially acute and topical in the conditions of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. It is confirmed by the aggressor country’s repeated threats about its application’s intentions. This requires an in-depth study of countermeasures, which can be implemented in the form of international political sanctions. The purpose of the academic paper is to study the theoretical and applied principles and possibilities of using international political sanctions as a countermeasure against using weapons of mass destruction. The methodological basis of the research is based on applying general scientific and special methods of economic analysis and scientific knowledge, in particular: system analysis, synthesis, classification, scientific abstraction, statistical analysis, comparison, analogies, graphical, tabular, generalization and systematization. Based on the research results, it was established that applying international political sanctions is an effective and efficient tool for countering the use of weapons of mass destruction. The threat of using weapons of mass destruction has increased. This is proven by an active armed conflict on the European continent, during which threats to use weapons of mass destruction are repeatedly voiced. The largest numbers of weapons of mass destruction were found in the USA and Russia; the risks of their use cause an increase in the amount of funding for countermeasures, the total amount of which in 2022 in the USA reached 427,461 thousand US dollars. The necessity is substantiated, and the application of personal, financial, trade, diplomatic sanctions againstthe energy sector in order to counter using weapons of mass destruction is proposed.

Highlights

• It has been established that the application of international political sanctions is an effective and efficient tool for countering the use of weapons of mass destruction.
• The necessity of applying personal, financial, trade, and diplomatic sanctions to the energy sector in order to counter the use of weapons of mass destruction is substantiated.