Today, Wednesday, the United States announced a new wave of financial sanctions, which it described as devastating, targeting major banks and members of the Russian elite, including the two daughters of President Vladimir Putin. It also banned Americans from investing in Russia.
A senior US official told reporters that the new sanctions included a complete ban on Sberbank, which owns a third of all banking assets in Russia, and Alpha Bank. He pointed out that oil and gas transactions are exempt from these sanctions.
He explained that the sanctions also target the two adult daughters of President Putin, the wife of his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his daughter and members of the Russian Security Council.
The US official added that his country “severely escalates” the financial shock to Russia by isolating its largest banks, and believed that the Russians might be forced to return to Soviet-style living standards in the 1980s, as he put it.
Today, the US Department of Justice also announced new measures to pursue what it describes as Russian criminal activities.
Sanctions after Bucha’s “atrocities”
US President Joe Biden has linked the new sanctions against Russia to what the West says are atrocities committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
“I have made clear that Russia will pay a heavy and immediate price for its atrocities at Bucha,” Biden wrote on Twitter.
In a televised speech later, Biden pledged to ban Russian state companies that Putin uses to finance the war, and announced that he would sign an executive order banning any American investments in Russia, noting that 600 American companies had left this country.
The US President added that the war may continue for a long time, stressing that his country will continue to support Ukraine and supply its army with weapons, “and we will not announce everything that we offer.”
On the other hand, a senior French official said that the European Union is likely to impose new sanctions on Russia.
As for Britain, today it announced its toughest sanctions against Russia, according to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
The new measures announced in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provide for a “total freeze of assets” belonging to Sberbank, the largest Russian bank, and a halt to imports of Russian coal until the end of the year, as well as measures against 8 businessmen, including billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, who runs the Novatek gas group.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter that the UK had “escalated the tough package of sanctions it has imposed on the Putin regime” and added: “We will not let Russia’s horrific crimes go unpunished.”
Putin denies the accusations
On the other hand, the Russian President – during a phone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban today – accused the Ukrainian authorities of being behind the “blatant provocations” in the city of Bucha, where the bodies of civilians were discovered after the withdrawal of Russian forces.
The Kremlin issued a statement saying that President Putin briefed Orban on “the situation regarding the talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations and also gave his initial assessment of the blatant provocations of the Kyiv regime in the city of Bucha,” in the first reaction of the Russian president to the issue, which has sparked Western discontent.
Before Putin, other Russian officials denied that Russian forces had committed violations in Bucha, and the Kremlin described the pictures of the corpses scattered in the streets of this city, which were broadcast by the media a few days ago, as “fabricated.”
On the ground, Western reports indicate that the Russian forces have completed their withdrawal from the Ukrainian capital region, and are strengthening their forces to the east in the Donbass.
Archyde.com quoted a senior US military official as saying that Washington’s assessments indicate that Russian forces have completely withdrawn from the vicinity of Kyiv, and are re-equipping their units and providing them with supplies for an expected redeployment in Ukraine.
Troops heading east
For his part, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said – in an interview with “NBC” (NBC) – that the Russians withdrew from Kyiv and retreated in the north and west, and are strengthening their forces to the east in Donbass.
Blinken saw that the Russian president was facing a “strategic setback” because he had not achieved what he had hoped for in Ukraine. He added that first there must be a ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces, and then ensuring that what happened does not happen again.
The island has monitored the Russian army sending reinforcements across the border, as dozens of vehicles and tanks are heading from the Russian Belgorod region towards the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which is about 50 km from the Russian border.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned today that Putin has not given up his desire to control all of Ukraine, suggesting that the war is likely to last months or even years.
“We have to be realistic. The war could go on for a long time, for months and even years. So we have to be ready for a long path, in terms of providing support to Ukraine, continuing the sanctions and strengthening our defenses,” Stoltenberg said before the meeting of NATO foreign ministers.
“We haven’t seen any indication that Putin has changed his goal by taking over all of Ukraine,” the NATO secretary added.