New Delhi: The US sanctioned more than 1,000 Russian people and firms, including its Central Bank governor and families of Security Council members, after President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex occupied regions of Ukraine into Russia on Friday, in defiance of international law, news agency AP reported.
Speaking about Putin’s actions, US President Joe Biden said, “Make no mistake: These actions have no legitimacy.”
He further said that the new financial penalties will impose costs on people and companies inside and outside of Russia “that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.”
According to the report, the Treasury Department has named hundreds of members of Russia’s legislature, leaders of financial and military infrastructure, and suppliers for sanctions designations.
The Commerce Department further added 57 companies to its list of export control violators and the State Department added more than 900 people to its visa restriction list, as per the report.
Russian President Putin, on the other hand, warned that Russia would never give up the annexed Ukrainian regions Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and would protect them as part of its sovereign territory.
As per reports, Russia pounded the Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets and suicide drones, and one strike has reportedly killed 25 people on Friday.
In the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, anti-aircraft missiles rained down on people who were waiting in cars to cross into the Russian-occupied territory to bring back family members across the front lines, as per the report.
Russian strikes were also reported in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. In Mykolaiv, a Russian missile struck a high rise and injured eight people, reported AP. Russia also reportedly targetted Mykolaiv and the Black Sea port city of Odesa with Iranian-supplied suicide drones.