Russia Attacks Ukraine Latest Updates Day 3: The US imposed sanctions on Russian president Vladimir Putin and three members of Russia’s Security Council directly responsible for the further invasion of Ukraine on Friday. Sanctions were also imposed on Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, defence minister Sergei Shoigu, and Russia’s chief of the general staff of the armed forces Valery Gerasimov.
“President Putin rejected the good faith efforts of the United States and our allies and partners to address our mutual security concerns through dialogue and to avoid needless conflict and human suffering,” a statement released by the US state department said.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that sanctions show that relations between both nations have crossed a certain line after which the point of no return begins.
The US treasury earlier imposed sanctions on Public Joint Stock Company Sberbank of Russia (Sberbank)and VTB Bank Public Joint Stock Company (VTB Bank) along with sanctions on major Russian financial institutions – Otkritie, Novikom, and Sovcom. Sanctions were also imposed on Sergei Sergeevich Ivanov, Andrey Patrushev, Ivan Igorevich Sechin, Alexander Aleksandrovich Vedyakhin and Andrey Sergeyevich Puchkov all of whom are close aides of Putin. Energy giant Gazprom and 12 other major companies were also barred from raising capital in Western financial markets.
However, according to experts, not removing Russia from the SWIFT banking system may limit the damage the US and its western allies are hoping to exact on the Russian economy. The US says that while Canada also supported excluding Russia from SWIFT it was Germany and Italy who did not agree with such a move.
Despite the sanctions, Russian armies continue to move towards Kyiv. Gunfighting, shelling and missile strikes in several places of Ukraine continued early Saturday. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky remained defiant and said that he would not leave Kyiv. The Ukrainian president also turned down an offer by the United States and said in response that he needs ‘ammunition and not a ride’.
According to reports by Ukrainian news agency the Kyiv Independent, several attacks were launched at military units in Kyiv and air raid alerts were sounded in Lviv, Lutsk, Uman, Vinnytsia, Rivne and Kherson.
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