The US State Department has announced new sanctions against russian banks, companies, and individuals from russia and Belarus.
"Today, the United States, in coordination with our allies and partners, is taking further action to increase pressure on the russian federation by imposing sanctions on the leaders and board members of russia's two most important banks, Sberbank and Gazprombank; russian state bank ‘Moscow Industrial Bank’ and 10 of its subsidiaries; state weapons producer ‘Promtechnologiya’,” the State Department said in the statement.
Sanctions have also been imposed against the russian TV channels "First Channel", "russia-1", and "NTV" and against seven russian companies operating in the field of maritime transport, in particular, the russian Defense Ministry "Defense Logistics", which carries weapons and other military equipment. The United States is blocking 69 of these companies. Sanctions have also been imposed on “Fertoing”, an engineering company that makes remote-controlled underwater equipment.
The State Department has also imposed visa restrictions on more than 2,600 russian and Belarusian servicemen, including those involved in the civilian killings in Bucha.
Another restriction is a ban on the export of American accounting, trust, corporate, and consulting services to russia. It should prevent the russian government and russian oligarchs from circumventing US sanctions. These types of financial services are classified as sanctioned, which will allow the United States to target anyone who works or has worked in these sectors of the economy of the russian federation.
On 8 May, the United States returned its diplomats to the embassy in Kyiv. The embassy will be opened after more than three months of evacuation to Poland.