Ukraine war: US unveils new sanctions targeting Russia, Moscow vows 'aggressive' response

The United States on Wednesday (Jun 12) announced a new wave of sanctions against Russia amid the ongoing Ukraine war. The sanctions are aimed at restricting Moscow's financial system and its access to products and services needed to sustain military production. More than 300 targets are on the list, including the Moscow Exchange.

The list of sanctions mentioned third-party firms and entities, including dozens of suppliers of electronics in China, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said, "Today's actions strike at their remaining avenues for international materials and equipment, including their reliance on critical supplies from third countries."

"We are increasing the risk for financial institutions dealing with Russia's war economy and eliminating paths for evasion, and diminishing Russia's ability to benefit from access to foreign technology, equipment, software, and IT services," she added.

Yellen further said, "We are increasing the risk for financial institutions dealing with Russia's war economy and eliminating paths for evasion, and diminishing Russia's ability to benefit from access to foreign technology, equipment software, and IT services."

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Russia slams sanctions

Immediately after the announcement, Russia saidit will respond to the "aggressive" sanctions that haveahead of G7 leaders' talks this week in Italy, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency, "As always in such cases, Russia will not leave such aggressive actions unanswered."

The US Treasury is also expanding its definition of Russia's "military-industrial base". So far, international banks may face sanctions for assisting Russia's defence industry, but the latest movebroadens the scope of secondary measures to include all Russian people and businesses that have previously been targeted by US sanctions.

This means that international financial institutions might face sanctions for performing transactions involving any blacklisted person or designated Russian banks such as VTB or Sberbank, with the list of vulnerable targets rising from over 1,000 to about 4,500.

(With inputs from agencies)