President Joe Biden said in an emergency address due to Russia’s special military operation against Ukraine that the U.S. would not participate in the armed conflict, but warned if the Russian Federation attacks any NATO country outside Ukraine, the U.S. would begin hostilities. Echo of Moscow quoted the U.S. leader as saying.
According to Joe Biden, Putin wants to restore the Soviet Union, and the U.S. will limit the ability of the Russian Federation to do business in dollars, pounds and yen.
The U.S. will impose new sanctions and export restrictions against Russia to minimize its impact on Europe.
Sanctions will be introduced against Russian banks assets of which exceed $1 trillion. Imports of high-tech products will be limited by 50 percent. The new U.S. sanctions will affect the largest Russian state-owned companies and will be comparable in value to Russia’s disconnection from SWIFT.
Joe Biden spoke of ‘complete rupture’ in US-Russia relations.
The U.S. imposed sanctions against 11 legal entities, including Gazprombank, Sberbank, Otkritie Bank, Novikombank and Sovcombank.
The United States imposed sanctions against the sons of Sergei Ivanov, Igor Sechin and Nikolai Patrushev, as well as against the Executive Director of Sberbank Vedyakhin, the heads of VTB Puchkov and Solovyev.
In turn, the Foreign Ministry of France also added: the EU sanctions will be aimed at «stifling» the economic functioning of Russia.
On the night of February 24, Vladimir Putin officially announced start of a military special operation in Donbas.
An extraordinary meeting of Russia’s Security Council was held in Moscow on February 21 to discuss the issue of recognizing the independence of the DPR and LPR. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree.
Earlier, the US leader Joe Biden signed a decree banning trade and investment with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The document was published on the White House website.
On February 22, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered an address and said that Kiev was seeking peace and would continue diplomatic work in this direction following Russia’s decision to recognize the Donbas republics.
The President of Kyrgyzstan believes that this may have been a forced measure. Sadyr Japarov spoke out about the conflict in Ukraine on social media.
