The U.S Department of the Treasury on Jan. 26 hit 30 Russian entities and individuals involved in the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and continued violence in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
“This action underscores the U.S. government’s opposition to Russia’s occupation of Crimea and firm refusal to recognize its attempted annexation of the peninsula,” the department said.
Russia has maintained financial and military support for proxy forces in eastern Ukraine, fueling the war it launched in April 2014.
The sanctions target 11 persons active in the Russian-occupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, including their so called “ministers” of information, industry and trade, finance, foreign affairs, state security, justice and taxes.
The department also sanctioned seven entities that support the prohibited coal trade in the occupied territories, along with 12 other entities connected to Russian activities in Crimea and the occupied Donbas territories.
“The U.S. government is committed to maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and to targeting those who attempt to undermine the Minsk agreements (the agreement signed in 2015 to halt the war in the Russian-occupied Donbas territories),” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
A press release on the U.S Department of the Treasury website lists the names of companies and individuals along with the accusations against them. Among those listed are big names such as Russian Deputy Minister of Energy Andrey Cherezov, Head of the Department for the Russian Energy Ministry’s Department of Operational Control and Management in the Electric Power Industry Evgeniy Grabchak, and so-called “Minister of information” of the Russian-occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, Igor Antipov.
The sanctions also target the Foreign Economic Association Technopromexport (Technopromexport LLC). The company is being sanctioned for operating in Crimea and is responsible for the transfer to Crimea of turbines made under license from German engineering company Siemens that were supposed to have been used in Russia.
The action is part of an ongoing effort to hold accountable those responsible for violating Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
As a result of sanctions, any property or interests in property of the designated persons in the possession or control of U.S. persons or within the United States must be blocked. Additionally, transactions by U.S. persons involving these persons are generally prohibited.
“Those who provide goods, services, or material support to individuals and entities sanctioned by the United States for their activities in Ukraine are engaging in behavior that could expose them to U.S. sanctions,” Mnuchin said.
