New Delhi: The United States of America (USA) on Thursday announced additional sanctions on over 400 Russian elites, lawmakers, and defense companies in response to Vladimir Putin’s war of choice in Ukraine that completed a month since it started on February 24.
While making the announcement, President Biden said that the aforementioned entities personally gain from the Kremlin’s policies and they should share in the pain.
The new sanctions announced to ramp up pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine were announced during summit meetings between Biden and NATO.
The US will impose full blocking sanctions on more than 400 individuals and entities, including the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, and 328 of its members, more than a dozen Russian elites and 48 Russian defense companies, BNN Bloomberg reported.
According to the White House, the defense companies being sanctioned are Russian Helicopters, Tactical Missiles Corporation, High Precision Systems, NPK Tekhmash OAO and Kronshtadt.
Currently, Biden is in Europe, where he will meet with allies from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to formulate their next steps.
The sanctions were reportedly announced in coordination with the European Union and members of the Group of Seven industrialized nations.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for military assistance without limitations as he addressed an emergency NATO summit.
Zelenskyy also pleaded for anti-air and anti-ship weapons, asking is it possible to survive in such a war without this?
Meanwhile, Russia has continued its hostilities by bombarding major cities across Ukraine in order to advance towards Kyiv. Forces continue to bombard and blockade the southern port city of Mariupol, where residents have run out of water and food and an estimated 90 per cent of the buildings have been damaged or destroyed, BBC reported.
As per reports, the Russian shelling also continue in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv.
Meanwhile, US officials are increasingly worried that Putin might deploy chemical, biological or even nuclear weaponry in Ukraine. Even Biden said this week that the possibility of Russia deploying chemical weapons was a real threat.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a CNN interview earlier this week said that Russia could consider using its nuclear weapons if it felt there was an existential threat for our country.