The US will impose sanctions on more than 500 targets on Friday in a move marking the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the deputy US treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, has said.
The action, taken in partnership with other countries, will target Russia’s military industrial complex and companies in third countries that facilitate Russia’s access to goods it wants, Adeyemo told Reuters news agency, as Washington seeks to hold Russia to account over the war and the death of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
“Tomorrow we’ll release hundreds of sanctions just here in the United States, but it’s important to step back and remember that it’s not just America taking these actions,” Adeyemo said.
The package will be the latest of thousands of sanctions targeting Moscow announced by the US and its allies after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands of people and destroyed cities.
Among the efforts has been a price ceiling enacted by the US and allies, aimed at slashing Moscow’s revenues from exports of oil and petroleum products.
To reduce funding for the war while still ensuring supplies to the global market, a coalition involving the G7 leading economies, the EU and Australia had set a price cap of $60 a barrel of Russian crude.
Due to the cap, Russia had the choice to either sell discounted oil to coalition countries or invest in building an alternative ecosystem.
In recent months, the coalition has announced plans to tighten compliance for the price ceiling.
The new penalties, which the treasury said were the largest single tranche since the start of the war, come as the US and its allies look to maintain pressure on Russia, despite doubts over whether the US Congress will approve additional security assistance for Kyiv.
US president, Joe Biden’s administration has exhausted money previously approved for Ukraine, and a request for additional funds is languishing in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
“Sanctions and export controls are geared towards slowing Russia down, making it harder for them to fight their war of choice in Ukraine,” Adeyemo said. “But ultimately, in order to speed Ukraine up, to give them the ability to defend themselves, Congress needs to act to give Ukraine the resources that they need and the weapons they need.“
Experts have warned that the sanctions are not enough to stop Moscow’s attacks.
“What Congress does to pass additional military assistance to Ukraine is going to matter far, far more than anything else they could do on the sanctions front,” Peter Harrell, a former national security council official, said.
The US Department of the Treasury in December said Russia’s economy had been hit by the sanctions, contracting by 2.1% in 2022.
Russia’s economy is over 5% smaller than had been predicted prior, Rachel Lyngaas, the chief sanctions economist, said on the treasury’s website.
Still, Russia’s economy has performed above expectations, with the International Monetary Fund in January forecasting 2.6% GDP growth for 2024 – a 1.5 percentage point upgrade from an October estimate – after solid 3.0% growth in 2023.
An IMF spokesperson, Julie Kozack, said on Thursday it was “clear that Russia is now in a war economy”, with military expenditures boosting weapons production, government social transfers propping up consumption and inflation that is rising, despite declines elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, headed to Ukraine on Friday to try to reassure the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and other officials that Congress will deliver another round of US aid, even as a package that would provide $60bn to the war-torn country is stalled in the US House.
The Senate passed a $95bn package to aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan last week, but the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, has not yet put forward a plan for passing it in the House.
In an interview before his trip, Schumer, told the Associated Press he planned to tell Ukrainian officials that “we’re going to win this fight, and America is not abandoning them”.
“I feel I have to be there because it’s so crucial,” Schumer said. “We are right at a vortex, a critical turning point in the whole west. And if we abandon Ukraine, the consequences for America are severe.”
Biden has continued to tell Zelenskiy that he will get the aid to Ukraine, but has expressed concerns about whether the House would be able to pass the aid before Russia took more Ukrainian territory.
“The idea now when they are running out of ammunition that we’re going to walk away, I find it absurd,” Biden told reporters after speaking to Zelenskiy last weekend.
The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
