Brussels: The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters and said it was toughening penalties against Russian banks in retaliation for war crimes in Ukraine.
The United Kingdom and the European Union were set to take additional steps, including a ban on new investment in Russian and an EU embargo on coal, after the recent evidence of atrocities that has emerged in the wake of the retreat by Russian forces from areas around Kyiv, including the town of Bucha.
The U.S. acted against two of Russia's largest banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, prohibiting assets from going through the U.S. financial system and barring Americans from doing business with those two institutions.
In addition to sanctions aimed at Putin's adult daughters, Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, the US is targeting Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin; the wife and children of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; and members of Russia's Security Council, including Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister.
The penalties cut Putin's close family members off from the US financial system and freezed the assets they hold in the United States.
President Joe Biden called the latest round of sanctions devastating. I made clear that Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in Bucha, Biden said in a tweet.
Biden was expected to will sign an executive order that would ban new investment in Russia by Americans no matter where they are living. The U.S. Treasury Department is preparing more sanctions against major Russian state-owned enterprises, according to the White House.