the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has welcomed US sanctions against Russia. “The sanctions announced today are aimed at Russia and are very specific. They’re painful,” he said. However, Kuleba said that people were a bit “surprised” on Monday when the US government announced its first measures. The US government banned US persons from doing business with or in those areas following Moscow’s decision to recognize the independence of the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.
“We have not seen how Russia, which granted this recognition, is punished,” Kuleba said. But that has now changed. On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden finally announced sanctions against two Russian banks, against trading in Russian government bonds and against three supporters of Putin and their families. “We can still stop him if we (…) continue to put pressure on him,” said the Ukrainian, referring to Putin. He also emphasized: “There is no such thing as a small, medium or large invasion. An invasion is an invasion.”