DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: The US has said it will impose “severe and immediate economic costs on the Putin regime for its atrocities in Ukraine, including in Bucha.”
This includes freezing the US assets of Putin’s daughters, Mariya Vorontsova and Katerina Tikhonova, and cutting them off from the US financial system.
Washington also said it will apply “full blocking” sanctions on Sberbank and Alfa Bank, Russia’s largest public and private financial institutions.
This will block exposure of the bank’s assets to the US financial system and prohibit US persons from doing business with them.
Other Russian elite targeted are Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the wife and children of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and members of Russia’s Security Council, including former President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people. Some of them are responsible for providing the support necessary to underpin Putin’s war on Ukraine,” a White House statement said.
Washington said the new sanctions were in response to “war crimes” committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the European Commission proposed its next raft of Russia sanctions, with officials in Brussels saying a decision is expected by the end of this week.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, has called for residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv provinces to evacuate their homes immediately as Russian forces are said to be repositioning for an assault. “The head of the military administrations of Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions are asking the population to leave these regions,” she said on Ukrainian television.
“It is necessary now because later people will be under fire and threatened with death. They will not be able to do anything against it and we will not be able to help,” Vereshchuk said.
“It is necessary to evacuate while there is such a possibility. At the moment, it is still there,” she added.
Earlier on Wednesday, regional governor for the part of the Luhansk region Ukraine still controls, Serhiy Haidai, warned of more fighting in the region as Russian troops reposition. “I think that in three to four days they will try to launch an offensive,” Haidai said.
Speaking to the European Parliament, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said that the bloc had spent €35 billion ($38 million) on Russian gas, oil and coal since the Ukraine war began in late February.
Borrell cited the number to reemphasize the importance of reducing the EU’s dependence on Russian energy imports.
“A billion euro is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us since the beginning of the war. We have given him €35 billion. Compare that to the €1 billion that we have given to the Ukraine in arms and weapons,’’ Borrell said.
He added the EU would need to expand renewable energy to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, and that the fight against climate change now goes hand in hand with geopolitics.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine.
“His response was positive, but with conditions,” Orban told a press conference, without elaborating.
The Hungarian leader, who was re-elected on Sunday, added he has invited Putin to Budapest along with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks.
Orban is seen as having one of the closest relationships of any EU leader with Putin
Orban also said that Hungary would not have a problem paying for Russian gas in rubles if asked to do so by Moscow. He added that Hungary does not support expanding EU sanctions to oil and gas imports from Russia.
Russia is demanding that EU countries pay for gas imports in rubles in a bid to prop up the currency. However, most European countries have refused, saying existing contracts are set in euros or dollars.
