WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Friday marked the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by sanctioning more than 60 senior Russian officials, including ministers and regional leaders, as well as three companies that manage the country’s nuclear weapons program.
The State Department said it was also imposing sanctions on numerous other Russian officials and entities, as well as Russians involved in stealing grain from Ukraine. He also imposed visa restrictions on more than 1,200 members of the Russian military as part of blanket sanctions.
The sanctions targeted senior aides to Russian President Vladmir Putin, Olga Skabeyeva, a prominent state television propagandist, and Oleg Romanenko, who was appointed to oversee Ukraine’s Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, seized during the Russian invasion of the February 24, 2022.
The seizure of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant only ‘underscores global concerns over the safety of nuclear energy and undermines the Kremlin’s efforts to portray itself as a responsible supplier of nuclear energy products’ , Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement.
All those sanctioned were subject to an executive order authorizing “sanctions against certain harmful foreign activities” by the Russian government, the State Department said.
Under these sanctions, any U.S. property owned or controlled on behalf of the designated individuals by a U.S. citizen is blocked.
(Report Jonathan Landay, French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)
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