Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that Moscow will not escape responsibility for the large number of Ukrainians killed in the attack.
“We already know of thousands of missing people,” Zelensky added in a speech via Telegram.
Zelensky explained that Moscow changed its tactics following the international outcry over Tire from the Kiev suburb of Bucha, where hundreds of bodies of civilians were found following the withdrawal of Russian forces.
He added that Moscow is now trying to retrieve the bodies of the dead in the areas occupied by Russian forces from the streets, but investigations, witnesses and satellite images will be used to determine the circumstances of the disappearance.
At the same time, Zelensky said, Moscow continues to build a fighting force to realize its ambitions in Donbass in eastern Ukraine, where Russian units are preparing to resume their attacks.
The government in Kyiv called on residents of Luhansk, Donetsk and Kharkiv to leave.
The White House announced sanctions this Wednesday once morest two adult daughters of Vladimir PutinMariya and Katerina, for the Russian invasion of Ukrainebecause he claims that relatives hide the wealth of the Russian president.
President Joe Biden linked the escalation of sanctions directly to evidence that has accumulated that Russian forces deliberately killed civilians in bushinga city on the outskirts of kyiv.
“I made it clear that Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in BuchaBiden tweeted.
A senior US official explained that Washington wants to create a “vicious circle” by piling up measures once morest Moscow.
“We deprive (Russia) of capital, we deprive it of technology, we deprive it of talent and the set of measures aims to create a spiral that accelerates as Putin keeps escalating” military, added the official who asked not to be identified.
In addition to preventing new investment in Russia, the United States will impose the harshest possible sanctions once morest the public bank Sberbank, which Washington says controls a third of Russia’s banking assets, and also once morest Alfa Bank, the country’s largest private bank.
That means that those entities, which had already received less harsh sanctions, will suffer the freezing of all their assets “in the US financial system” and will not be able to make any type of transaction with US entities or persons, according to the White House.
USA It also wants to sanction “large strategic public companies” but, for now, has not revealed the list.
Washington said the measures aim to make Russia a “pariah” in the world economy but would make exceptions in the energy sector, the main source of resources for the Russian treasury.
The White House, as always, said that the measures are coordinated especially with its European allies that are highly dependent on Russian gas.
Britain also tightened its sanctions once morest Moscow on Wednesday, punishing two banks and suspending imports of Russian gas until the end of the year.
Putin’s assets
The new sanctions also target two of Putin’s daughters, Maria Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonovawhich are now subject to a US asset freeze and cut off from the US financial system.
The same treatment will be applied to the wife and daughter of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as well as members of Russia’s security council, including former President Dimitri Medvedev.
“These individuals enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people. Some of them are responsible for providing the necessary support to prop up Putin’s war once morest Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden in members of his family, and that is why we are targeting them,” a senior US official told reporters, referring to the two daughters.
Almost at the same time that it announced the sanctions, Washington announced the indictment of Russian billionaire Konstantin Malofeyev.
The oligarch is considered one of the main sources of financing for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Malofeyev is accused of “trying to circumvent sanctions” on Russia.
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the president of United StatesJoe Biden, will announce this Thursday the release of a million barrels per day of its strategic reserves for six months in an attempt to lower its price, the White House said.
“Following consultations with allies and partners, the president will announce the largest reserve release in history, placing an additional million barrels per day daily over the next six months,” the statement says.
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“The magnitude of this release is unprecedented: never in the world have reserves been poured (into the market) at a rate of one million barrels per day for so long. This record release will provide a historic amount to serve as a bridge until the end of the year, when domestic production increases “add note.
The move will dump a significant amount into the overheated global oil market.which has generated inflationary waves in the US economy.
Battling once morest bad data in the polls and with legislative elections in which the opposition is emerging as the favorite to regain control of Congress, the White House tries to show that Biden has a solution to a problem born in the pandemic and spread by the war in Ukraine.
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The release of reserves would be equivalent to increasing world supplies by regarding 1%.
The Petroleum fell sharply following initial reports of the US plan, which came as oil exporter group OPEC+ decided to modestly increase output ignoring calls to ease price pressure from the war in Ukraine.
Biden in the pillory
The release of US crude oil will dwarf previous uses of strategic reserves announced by Biden simultaneously with other countries on March 1 following the Russian invasionand also last year, in response to rising inflation.
Despite a recovering economy and the retreat of the covid-19 pandemic, Biden he gets little credit from voters, who instead blame him for rising prices everywhere from the supermarket to car dealerships.
Disruptions in the supply chain related to the different rates of economic recovery in the world are part of the phenomenon of inflation.
Also behind this politically dangerous trend are fuel costs, which, in turn, drive up transportation prices for almost all goods.
And for drivers, price shocks at gas stations are a constant source of irritation.
Gasoline prices are currently averaging $4.23 per gallon; 47% above a year ago.
The barrel of US WTI crude fell 4.6%, while in the future contracts of the barrel of Brent, European reference, the fall was 5.5%, to 107.20 dollars.
Crude oil prices reached almost $140 in March due to concerns regarding Russia, one of the world’s largest producers, which sparked a war in Ukraine and was the target of multiple international sanctions.
Prices have retreated a bit since the US banned Russian imports on March 8, but have hovered around $100 since then.
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the president of Russia, Vladimir Putinstated today that it will suspend gas supply contracts if “unfriendly” countries do not pay for fuel in rubles and do not open an account in the Russian national currency at Gazprombank.
“Today I signed a decree that establishes the rules for the trade of Russian natural gas with the so-called unfriendly countries” and that it will take effect on April 1, the Russian leader said shortly before a meeting with the aviation industry.
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“We offer these countries a clear and transparent mechanism: to buy natural gas from Russia, must open ruble accounts in Russian banks. Payments for gas supplied will be made from these accounts starting tomorrow“, said Putin.
In the decree, the Russian president specifies that the authorized bank for this is Gazprombank, one of the few financial entities in Russia that has not been sanctioned by the European Union (EU) because it processes, together with Sberbank, a large part of the energy operations with the block.
The Russian president stated that Russia will not do “charitable works” when it comes to supplying gas to Europe and other countries.
“If such payments are not made, we will consider this as a default by the buyers with all the resulting consequences,” warned.
“Nobody sells us anything for free And we won’t do charity work either. That means that existing contracts (in case of non-payment of gas in rubles) will be suspended”, he stressed.
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Putin pointed out that Russia supplied “European consumers with our resources, in this case gas, they received it, they paid us in euros, which they then froze.”
“In this sense, there is reason to believe that we supply part of the gas to Europe practically for free”, he stressed, and said that it cannot continue like this.
However, the decree grants the Foreign Investment Control Commission the authority to grant “permits to foreign buyers to meet their obligations to Russian suppliers for natural gas supplies without having to comply with the established procedure” on the matter. payment in rubles.
The Russian Government adopted on the 8th a list of unfriendly countries and territorieswhich includes the United States, Canada, all EU member countries, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Albania, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, North Macedonia, Japan, South Korea South, Australia, Micronesia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan.
The price of TTF natural gas for delivery in May on the Dutch market rose to 127.37 euros per MWh during the speech of Putin.
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