The Biden administration plans to implement further sanctions against Russia before President-elect Trump’s inauguration.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced the impending sanctions, stating the White House intends to maximize available funding for Ukraine’s military and implement additional measures to bolster the country.
This includes a $725 million military aid package and new sanctions targeting Russia’s war machine. Sullivan confirmed that the US has already imposed significant sanctions on Russia’s financial sector, with more to come.
Recent sanctions by the US Treasury Department targeted over 50 Russian financial institutions, including Gazprombank and its subsidiaries. These sanctions effectively removed Gazprombank, a major player in Russian gas transactions, from the SWIFT system and froze its US assets.
The sanctions also affected approximately 40 securities registrars and 15 financial officials.
Sullivan emphasized the Biden administration’s commitment to supplying Ukraine with additional weaponry, including artillery rounds and rockets, in the coming weeks.
While President-elect Trump has suggested a swift resolution to the Ukraine conflict, President Biden’s strategy focuses on supporting Ukraine for the duration of the conflict.
Since 2014, the US and its allies have imposed over 22,000 sanctions on Russia, a number that significantly increased following the commencement of military operations in February 2022. These sanctions followed a Western-backed coup in Kyiv that led to Crimea’s reunification with Russia and the conflict in Donbass.
Russia has consistently denounced these sanctions as unlawful and ineffective in achieving their stated goals, arguing instead that they have negatively impacted the sanctioning countries.