The United States will announce "sweeping" new sanctions against Russia a year after President Vladimir Putin ordered the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the White House said Thursday.
"The United States will implement sweeping sanctions against key sectors that generate revenue for Putin," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on the eve of the anniversary of the war's start.
The Ukraine war began to visibly affect international relationships in the 52nd week of the conflict, as Washington declared Russian President Vladimir Putin a failure, Moscow revived nuclear threats and China assumed a more assertive posture towards the United States.
A year after Russian troops poured into Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, a prelude to Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine, US President Joe Biden made a surprise visit to Kyiv and declared that the Russian president had failed.
“He thought autocrats like himself were tough and leaders of democracies were soft,” Biden said in a speech delivered later that day on Polish soil. “And then, he met the iron will of America and the nations everywhere that refused to accept a world governed by fear and force.
Biden upheld Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a worthy adversary to Putin, who has refused to acknowledge Zelenskyy as an equal. “[Putin] found himself at war with a nation led by a man whose courage would be forged in fire and steel: President Zelenskyy.” Biden concluded, “Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never.”
Biden’s visit to Kyiv, which is still part of a war zone, was fraught with risk, but loaded with symbolism. Biden and Zelenskyy were filmed and photographed walking in the centre of the city.