In the aftermath of the gruesome Bucha killings, the United States and its allies have imposed fresh sanctions against Russia. Ukraine has called for the West to impose “ruinous” sanctions. “Sanctions against Russia must be ruinous enough for us to end this terrible war,” said the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak.
The new sanctions target Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two adult daughters, Russia’s Sberbank and a ban on Americans investing in Russia. The US is also calling for the country’s expulsion from the G20. “I made clear that Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in Bucha,” President Joe Biden said in a tweet after the White House said he will sign an executive order banning all new investment in Russia.
The United Nations General Assembly is also voting on Thursday to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council. European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said more EU sanctions will come, even as the bloc is looking into oil and revenues Russia gets from fossil fuels.
The international community called for tougher sanctions against Russia amid reports of war crimes and attacks on Ukrainian civilians. The latest evidence of such acts was found in a small town called Bucha, outside capital Kyiv, where more than 300 bodies were found on the streets and in unmarked graves near a church.
In an emotional address to the UN Security Council this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the Bucha killings “the most terrible war crimes” since World War II. But, Russia has denied the allegations and claimed that the images from Bucha were staged.
What are the new sanctions?
Americans have been banned from investing in Russia. The new wave of sanctions hit Russia’s Sberbank, which holds one-third of Russia’s total banking assets, and Alfabank, the country’s fourth-largest financial institution, according to a report by Reuters. Officials from the US said energy transactions, however, were exempted.
A report by the Associated Press stated that earlier this week, the US treasury had moved to block any Russian government debt payments with US dollars from accounts at American financial institutions. This has been done to make it difficult for Russia to meet financial obligations.
The Reuters report mentioned that Britain also froze Sberbank’s assets, and said it will ban imports of Russian coal by the end of the year. But, this had no effect on the Russian rouble, which extended recovery gains returning to levels seen before the invasion.
Putin’s two adult daughters, Katerina Vladimirovna Tikhonova and Maria Vladimirovna Vorontsova, were also targeted by Washington. Officials from the White House told the BBC this was because they could be in control of some of their father’s assets. The US cut off all of Putin’s close family members from its financial system and froze any assets they might hold in the country. Same measures were taken against Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, the wife and children of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, former President Dmitry Medvedev and others, the AP report stated.
What is Europe doing about sanctions?
The EU has hesitated on full-blown sanctions as it is far more dependent on Russian energy than the US. Europe is walking a tightrope as Russia supplies around 40 per cent of the bloc’s natural gas consumption. The EU also gets a third of its oil imports from Russia, about $700 million per day.
Europe’s largest economy Germany, which relies on Russian gas for much of its energy needs, has warned that while it supported ending Russian energy imports as soon as possible it could not do it overnight.
Such sanctions will likely lead to price rise for European consumers and businesses. In Brussels, however, the European Commission has proposed a ban on coal imports from Russia. If adopted, it will be the first such sanction by the bloc to target Russia’s critical energy industry.
According to the AP report, EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Europe was paying Russia a billion euros ($1.09 billion) a day for energy, helping finance the war effort and dwarfing the aid to Ukraine.
But, other than energy issues, Europe is considering banning Russian ships from EU ports. Some EU leaders have said the proposals were not enough.
Calling it a feeble response, Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said a coal ban, sanctions against a few banks, and barring Russian ships were not adequate steps in the wake of the discovered atrocities in Ukraine.
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