US, EU to Toughen Anti-Russian Sanctions, White House Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United States and the European Union will impose more sanctions on Russia and toughen the existing ones following US President Joe Biden’s upcoming visit to Brussels, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.
"He (Biden) will join our partners in imposing further sanctions on Russia and tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement," Sullivan told reporters in the White House on Tuesday, TASS reported.
According to Sullivan, the announcement about new sanctions will be made on Thursday, following discussions with US allies in Brussels. At the same time, Sullivan gave no details of the forthcoming sanctions.
"What I will say is that one of the key elements of that announcement will focus not just on adding new sanctions, but on ensuring that there is joint effort to crack down on evasion, on sanctions busting, on any attempt by any country to help Russia basically undermine, weaken, or get around the sanctions," the White House official said.
"We have applied an enormous amount of economic pressure. And in order to sustain and escalate that pressure over time, part of that is about new designations, new targets, but a big part of it is about effective enforcement and evasion," he added.
According to an earlier statement by the White House, Biden will visit Brussels on March 24, to participate in an emergency NATO summit and a Group of Seven (G7) meeting. Besides, he will join a scheduled EU summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine, stressing that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.
According to the UN, 6.5 million people have been internally displaced in Ukraine due to the Russian attack.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says 902 civilians have been killed and another 1,459 have been wounded so far in the war in Ukraine.
Most of the injuries and deaths were caused by "explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes," OHCHR said.