U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday announced Washington would issue more than 500 new sanctions targeting Russia as the United States seeks to increase pressure on Moscow to mark the second anniversary of its war in Ukraine.

The United States will also impose new export restrictions on nearly 100 entities for providing support to Russia and take action to further reduce Russia’s energy revenues, Biden said in a statement.

The measures seek to hold Russia to account over the war and the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Biden said, as Washington looks to continue to support Ukraine even as it faces acute shortages of ammunition and U.S. military aid has been delayed for months in Congress.

“They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home,” Biden said of the sanctions.

Friday’s measures will target individuals connected to Navalny’s imprisonment as well as Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents, he said.

The sanctions are the latest of thousands of targets announced by the United States and its allies following Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine, which has killed tens of thousands and destroyed cities.

“Two years into this war, the people of Ukraine continue to fight with tremendous courage. But they are running out of ammunition. Ukraine needs more supplies from the United States to hold the line against Russia’s relentless attacks, which are enabled by arms and ammunition from Iran and North Korea,” Biden said.

“That’s why the House of Representatives must pass the bipartisan national security supplemental bill, before it’s too late.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

A senior U.S. diplomat said on Thursday the United States will impose “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of sanctions against Russia in a new package marking the second anniversary of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said some of the sanctions would target those responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but most will hit “Putin’s war machine” and close gaps in existing sanctions regimes.

President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that Washington would announce a major package of sanctions against Russia on Friday, without giving details.

“We will have a crushing new package of sanctions, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them in the next couple days … and some of them will be targeted at folks directly involved in Navalny’s death,” Nuland said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington.

She said the vast majority are designed to further weaken “(Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war machine, to close gaps in the sanctions regime that he has been able to evade. But I anticipate that as time goes on, we will be able to put forward more and more sanctions,” she said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)