US enacts sanctions targeting Russian military, gold
SUMMIT: G7 VOWS TO INCREASE SANCTIONS ON PUTIN
Washington – The US announced steps yesterday to implement the new sanctions on Russia as agreed by G7 leaders, targeting Moscow’s defence industry and banning gold imports from the country.
The latest moves “strike at the heart of Russia’s ability to develop and deploy weapons and technology used for Vladimir Putin’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine”, the US Treasury Department said.
The sanctions target state company Rostec and other industries critical to the defence sector, as well as military units and officers implicated in human rights abuses in Ukraine, Treasury said.
Russia vowed yesterday its assault on Ukraine would continue until Kyiv surrenders, as world leaders warned that Moscow would pay for its aggression.
The G7 group of the world’s most powerful democracies met in Germany to send a message that they remain united behind Ukraine’s embattled government. And, ahead of a key meeting of the Nato allies, US President Joe Biden and fellow leaders pledged military aid for Kyiv and economic pain for Moscow.
But President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin was unmoved, warning that Ukraine’s forces’ only option was to lay down their arms in the face of the Russian invasion. “The Ukrainian side can stop everything before the end of today,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “An order for the nationalist units to lay down their arms is necessary,” he said.
The consequences of Russia’s four-month-old invasion were on display in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, where shaken civilians recounted Monday’s missile strike on a shopping mall. “Everything burned, really everything, like a spark to a touchpaper. I heard people screaming. It was horror,” witness Polina Puchintseva said.
All that was left of the shopping centre – scene of at least 18 deaths – was charred debris, chunks of blackened walls and green lettering from a smashed store front. Russia claims its missile salvo was aimed at an arms depot, but none of the civilians who talked to AFP knew of any weapons store in the neighbourhood.
And, outside Russia, the latest carnage sparked only Ukrainian fury and western solidarity. “Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” the G7 leaders said, condemning the “abominable attack”.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky declared on his social media channels: “Only total insane terrorists, who should have no place on earth, can strike missiles at civilian objects. Russia must be recognised as a state sponsor of terrorism. The world can and therefore must stop Russian terror,” he added.
At their summit in the German Alps, the G7 leaders vowed that Russia, already under tough sanctions, would face more economic pain. They announced several new measures to squeeze Putin, including a plan to work towards a price cap on Russian oil. –
Missile kills shoppers during centre’s busiest time.
ARussian missile strike on a crowded mall in central Ukraine killed at least 18 people in what Group of Seven leaders branded “a war crime” at a meeting in Germany where they looked to step up sanctions on Moscow.
The leaders vowed that Russian President Vladimir Putin and those responsible would be held to account for Monday’s strike in the city of Kremenchuk, carried out during the shopping mall’s busiest hours.
“Indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians constitute a war crime,” they said, condemning the “abominable attack”.
Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians, with President Volodymyr Zelensky calling it “one of the most brazen terrorist acts in European history” in his evening broadcast posted on Telegram.
“A peaceful town, an ordinary shopping centre – women, children ordinary civilians inside,” said Zelensky, who earlier shared a video of the mall engulfed in flames.
Dmytro Lunin, governor of the Poltava region where Kremenchuk is located, said yesterday that 18 people were killed in the attack. Fifty-nine were wounded.
In a separate attack on Monday, Russian rockets killed at least eight civilians as they were out collecting water in the eastern city of Lysychansk, said Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gaiday.
Lysychansk has become the focus of heavy Russian attacks following the fall of its twin city, Severodonetsk.
“Our defenders are holding the line, but the Russians are turning the city into rubble... the infrastructure is completely destroyed,” Gaiday.
After failing to capture Kyiv following their February invasion, Russian troops have focused their campaign on seizing a swathe of eastern Ukraine, and have been gaining ground.
A strike in Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s northeast, killed four people and wounded 19 others, authorities said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking from the G7 gathering in the Bavarian Alps, said the Kremenchuk attack demonstrated Putin’s “depths of cruelty and barbarism”.
“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” the G7 said in a statement on the second day of the summit. –