Biden announces new sanctions over Russia’s “premeditated attack” on Ukraine

Washington – President Biden announced on Thursday Russia Continuing aggression against Ukraine A “premeditated attack,” they announced additional sanctions that the United States and its Western allies would impose on Russia in response to its aggressive actions.

“This is a premeditated attack,” Biden said at the top of his remarks. “Vladimir Putin has been planning this for months, as we’ve been saying all along… for weeks, and for weeks, we’ve been warning that this is going to happen, and now, it’s unfolding pretty much as we expected.”

The president announced that the United States would impose sanctions on four of Russia’s largest banks, as well as two financial institutions that the United States sanctioned earlier this week, which means “freezing all assets they have in America,” he said. The United States and its allies are also imposing new export restrictions, which they estimate will cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports and deal a blow to Moscow’s military and economic ambitions.

Mr. Biden said that NATO will hold a summit on Friday to bring together the leaders of 30 allied countries to chart their next steps. However, the president emphasized that US forces “will not go to Europe to fight in Ukraine”, but to defend and reassure NATO allies in the region.

Biden condemned what he called an “unprovoked and unprovoked attack” on Ukraine in a statement issued late at night Wednesday after Russia began launching strikes against Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kiev. He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of choosing a “premeditated war that will lead to heavy loss of life and human suffering.”

Ukrainian border guard service said Russian forces started hacking On the country’s border in the Kiev region, Oleksiy Aristovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said “dozens” of Ukrainian troops were killed amid the Russian attacks.

Biden’s comments follow a meeting with G7 leaders, many of whom joined the United States in issuing a widespread condemnation of Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine, as well as a meeting with his National Security Council to discuss the latest developments in the crisis. .

In an effort to deter Russia from taking further action in Ukraine, the United States has put forward a file The first tranche of penalties After Putin recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. The initial round targeted a pair of Russian banks, five members of the Russian elite with ties to Putin, the company that builds the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and officials of its subsidiaries.

But the Biden administration and Western leaders have warned that any further escalation by Putin against Russia’s neighbor will lead to tougher sanctions, and the president said in a statement late Wednesday that the United States and its allies would impose “other consequences” on Russia over its attack on Ukraine. .