On the morning of February 24, Russia instigated a massive, deadly attack against its smaller neighbor Ukraine. “The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity. This is a premeditated attack," said President Joe Biden.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will bear the consequences. Today, I am authorizing additional strong sanctions and new limitations on what can be exported to Russia. This is going to impose severe costs on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time. We have purposely designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia, and to minimize the impact on the United States and our allies.”
The United States and its many Allies and partners have imposed full blocking sanctions on all ten of Russia’s largest financial institutions that together hold nearly 80 percent of Russian banking sector assets.
“We will limit Russia’s ability to do business in Dollars, Euros, Pounds, and Yen to be part of the global economy. We will limit their ability to do that. We are going to stunt the ability to finance and grow the Russian military. We’re going to impair their ability to compete in a high-tech 21st century economy.… Some of the most powerful impacts of our actions will come over time as we squeeze Russia’s access to finances and technology for strategic sectors of its economy and degrade its industrial capacity for years to come. Between our actions and those of our Allies and partners, we estimate it will cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports.”
“It will strike a blow to their ability to continue to modernize their military. It will degrade their defense, aerospace and maritime industries. And will be a major hit to Putin’s long-term strategic ambitions,” said President Biden.
“Putin’s choice to make a totally unjustifiable war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger,” said President Biden. “Liberty, democracy, human dignity – these are forces far more powerful than fear and oppression. They cannot be extinguished by tyrants like Putin and his armies. They cannot be erased from people’s hearts and hopes by any amount of violence and intimidation. They endure.”
