Washington DC – United States President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia and promised to impose a “heavy cost” on Russia. occupation of Ukraine.
Speaking from the White House on Thursday, Biden expressed his support for Ukraine and said the sanctions package would limit international trade with Moscow and punish Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
“Putin is aggressive; “Putin chose this war and now he and his country will suffer the consequences.”
The sanctions target four Russian banks with more than $1 trillion in assets, including the country’s largest bank, Sberbank. “This means that every asset they have in America will be frozen,” the US president said.
Biden also said the sanctions would target wealthy Russians close to Putin. “We will continue to drum up these appointments against corrupt billionaires in the coming days,” he promised.
Thursday’s measures did not personally target the Russian president, but Biden said imposing sanctions on Putin was “on the table”.
The US move comes after Russia launches large-scale military operation He is in Ukraine late Wednesday, after months of stalemate in the area where Moscow has amassed up to 200,000 troops near the Ukrainian border.
European countries began imposing sanctions on Russia for the invasion, the UK said on Thursday. quantity It targets dozens of Russian banks, businesses and the wealthy elite, and has banned Russia’s national airline Aeroflot from the country’s airspace.
said Putin Russia aims to get rid of the “demilitarization and pettyification of Ukraine” but does not plan to invade the country. Russian forces bombarded targets All throughout Ukraine during the night.
Ukrainian officials said there were also clashes on the ground, as Russian forces seized the old nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in the north of the country on Thursday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared martial law late Wednesday and promised that Ukrainians would defend themselves against invasion. “When you attack us you will see our faces, not our backs, but our faces” said Zelenskyy.
Putin has accused the Ukrainian government of committing atrocities in the east of the country, where government forces have been fighting Russia-backed separatists since 2014, but Ukrainian officials have repeatedly denied attacking pro-Moscow rebels.
Russia denied the allegations that the US and Europe were planning to invade Ukraine and claimed it was legitimate. security concerns It demands assurances on Kiev’s deepening alliance with the West – and that Ukraine will not be allowed to join NATO.
Numerous negotiations between Russian, European and American officials failed to end the stalemate. US and European officials have argued that NATO is a defense alliance that poses no threat to Russia and stressed that allowing Moscow to veto efforts to join would be a violation of Kiev’s sovereignty.
Before Biden’s announcement, US lawmakers from both major parties had condemned He called for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and for swift and “painful” sanctions against Moscow.
Asked whether the sanctions prevented Putin from invading Ukraine, Biden said on Thursday: “The threat of sanctions – and imposing sanctions and seeing the effects of sanctions – are two different things.”
Biden also said his administration will work to stabilize the energy market and minimize the effects of the crisis on fuel costs in the United States. Russia is one of the world’s largest oil and natural gas producers.
“I know this is difficult and that Americans are already hurting. “I will do everything in my power to limit the pain the American people feel at the gas pump,” Biden said. But this aggression cannot go unanswered. Had it been, the consequences for America would have been much worse.”
The White House later gave more details about the new sanctions against Russia.
The White House said, among other things, that Sherbank imposed restrictions on transactions in U.S. dollars and restricted Moscow’s ability to import “sensitive technology primarily targeted at the Russian defense, aerospace and shipping sectors.”
Penalties were also announced to 24 individuals and organizations in Belarus, including two state banks. host Russian troops join the invasion.
“This is essentially Joe Biden and the Western alliance sending a message to others: ‘Please don’t help Russia with this, or you will face more sanctions,'” said Alan Fisher, a Washington correspondent for Al Jazeera.
Fisher said the White House had suggested that further sanctions could be imposed if Russia did not stop its attack on Ukraine. “Apparently, despite the threat of sanctions, Vladimir Putin was willing to move forward. “The threat of further sanctions may not be enough to force him to withdraw troops,” he said.
During his speech, Biden reiterated Washington’s commitment to defending NATO countries in Eastern Europe, three of which border Ukraine. Alliance members have a collective defense agreement.
The US president has said that American forces will not fight in Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO. Noting that the United States had sent additional troops to Europe in the past weeks, he announced that forces already on the continent were deployed to “NATO’s eastern flank allies Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania”.