Last minute: In a written statement from the White House, it was announced that new sanctions were brought against Russia in coordination with the G7 and the European Union, after hundreds of bodies of civilians were found in the Ukrainian city of Bucha, which was liberated from the Russians.
Accordingly, all assets of Russia’s largest financial institution Sberbank and Alfa Bank, the country’s largest private bank, which were previously included in the US sanctions list, were frozen.
The assets of important enterprises affiliated to the Russian state were also frozen and commercial relations with these enterprises were prohibited.
The sanctions included Russian elites and their families, as well as Putin’s two adult daughters, the wife and daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
In addition, under the sanctions, the US Treasury Department prohibited Russia from making debt payments with funds under US jurisdiction.
All investments in Russia are also banned under the new sanctions.
ANNOUNCED IN ENGLAND
Britain has decided to freeze all assets of Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, and to ban all new foreign investments by British firms in Russia.
CIVILIAN BODYES FOUND IN BUCA
The Ukrainian army, which liberated the city of Bucha, near Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, from Russian forces on April 1, encountered a city full of corpses, with its buildings destroyed and its streets.
The bodies of 410 civilians were found in liberated settlements near Kyiv.
Although Russia denied the allegations that civilians were killed, corpses were seen in the streets in satellite photos released by the satellite company Maxar on March 19th.
After the incident, the Biden administration described Putin as a “war criminal” and announced that they would impose new sanctions on Russia. (AA)