US announces sanctions against 11 Russian defense officials

US Department of State announced the imposition of sanctions again 11 high-ranking representatives of the Russian forces and military-industrial complex Monday, including Russian National Guard head Viktor Zolotov, head of Russian Federal Service on military-technical cooperation Dmitry Shugayev, Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheyev and eight Russian Deputy Defense Ministers.

"The world has watched in horror as Russia has perpetrated a premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine. Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine. Today, the Department of State is continuing to impose severe costs on Russian defense leaders," the Department of State said in its statement.

"The following 11 individuals are being designated pursuant to E.O. 14024 Section 1(a)(i), as persons who operate or have operated in the defense and related materiel sector of the Russian Federation economy," the statement follows.

The sanctions are being imposed, inter alia, against Russian Deputy Ministers of Defense Alexey Krivoruchko, Timur Ivanov, Yunus-Bek Evkurov, Dmitry Bulgakov, Yury Sadovenko, Nikolay Pankov, Ruslan Tsalikov and Gennady Zhidko.

The inclusion to the sanctions list means freezing of all assets in the US and ban for US citizens or companies for having business with people on the list, the statement notes.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address 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 order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

When clarifying the developments unfolding, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure

After that, the US, the EU, the UK and a number of other states imposed sanctions against Russian citizens and companies.

KF/