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Volodymyr Zelenskyy (on April 4)
Photo: Uncredited / dpa
The Western countries want to dissuade Russia from further escalating its war of aggression against Ukraine with ever new economic punitive measures.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed the recent tightening of sanctions.
These look “impressive”, said Zelenskyj in his video speech, which was published on Telegram on Thursday night.
However, the measures were not enough.
It can hardly be called appropriate given what the world saw in Bucha, Zelenskyy said.
He also referred to the ongoing fighting in the port city of Mariupol or Kharkiv and a likely impending Russian offensive in Donbass.
Zelenskyy again called for an embargo on Russian oil and a complete exclusion of the Russian banking system from international finance.
If there is no “really painful sanctions package” against Russia and no deliveries of the weapons demanded by Kyiv to Ukraine, Russia will see this as “permission to advance”.
The Ukrainian President also called on the citizens of Russia in Russian to demand an end to the war.
"No one in Russia who does not now demand an end to the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine has a future," he said.
Russian citizens should rather lose something now and face the Russian repressive machine than be "compared to Nazis" all their lives.
In addition to arming Ukraine, the West is primarily relying on sanctions.
An own, direct military intervention - for example by NATO forces - should be prevented at all costs.
The Kremlin chief's daughters are also on the list
Affected by the new sanctions are the large Russian Sberbank and the Alfa-Bank, founded by several oligarchs.
According to the White House, Sberbank holds almost a third of the assets of the entire Russian banking sector and is systemically important for the Russian economy.
Alfa Bank is Russia's largest privately owned financial institution.
In addition, the US government prohibits new investments in Russia by US persons wherever they are located.
Russia should be further isolated from the world economy.
Punitive measures are also taken against Russian elites and their relatives.
These include President Putin's adult children, Foreign Minister Lavrov's wife and daughter, former Russian head of state Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
jok/dpa