White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington had identified “individuals belonging to the Kremlin’s inner circle,” according to Agence France-Presse.
It added that these people were “targets” of the sanctions, due to their “close financial relations with Western countries.”.
This came after a session of the United Nations Security Council on Ukraine, on Monday, called for by the United States, in which the representatives of the United States and Russia exchanged accusations.
The United States representative to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, revealed during the session the size of the Russian military build-up on the Ukrainian border, in numbers, stressing that the situation would be “disastrous” if Russia invaded its neighbor, while the Russian delegate, Vasily Nebenzia, accused Washington of “fuelling” Washington. Hysteria” against Ukraine.
The US delegate explained that Russia has sent more than 100,000 soldiers to the borders of Ukraine, saying that these are “fighting forces and prepared for any hostile attack against Ukraine,” noting that this is “the largest military buildup in Europe in decades.”“.
And she added, “Russia is sending more weapons and soldiers, and it has used 200,000 cars to transport soldiers and weapons to the border, and it has moved 5,000 soldiers to Belarus, including short-range ballistic missiles.”“.
And she continued: “We see that Russia is expanding its presence to 50 thousand soldiers on the borders of Belarus, two hours from the borders of Ukraine.“.
For his part, Russia’s delegate to the United Nations said that the United States wanted to “create a state of hysteria and deceive the international community with baseless accusations.”“.
The US ambassador responded that the deployment of more than 100,000 Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine justifies a meeting at the United Nations, because these military forces “threaten international security.”“.
Nebenzia added, “We understand Washington’s desire to look at Russian policies toward Ukraine, but the Ukrainian president himself said that he does not view the activities on the border as a threat.”