Beijing, 21 Jan (Xinhua) -- The US government announced sanctions against four Ukrainian citizens on 20 January, accusing them of attempting to "undermine Ukraine's stability" in accordance with "Russian directives." On the same day, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the 21st is unlikely to achieve a breakthrough in the current situation.
Sanctions against incumbents
The sanctions are imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that Russia instructed its intelligence services to recruit current and former Ukrainian government officials to cooperate with the Russian side in "taking over the Ukrainian government and controlling Ukraine's critical infrastructure."
This is the U.S. Treasury Building photographed in Washington, D.C., on March 27, 2020. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Liu Jie)
According to CBS, two of the targets of the sanctions are current members of the Ukrainian parliament. The U.S. side accused them of being guided by Russian intelligence to "create instability before a Russian invasion," including "sabotage" against pro-Western politicians and preparations for "the establishment of a new Russian-controlled government in Ukraine."
According to the relevant regulations, the bank accounts and financial assets of the above four people in the United States will be frozen, and U.S. companies and individuals will not have any business dealings with them.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement that Russia launched a comprehensive information action plan in 2020, in part to weaken the Ukrainian government's ability to operate independently, and that the individuals sanctioned "played a key role in this operation."
The Russian side did not respond to the US sanctions on the same day.
On 15 December 2020, in Kiev, Ukraine, members of the Usholada (Parliament) voted on the 2021 State Budget. (Xinhua News Agency, photo by Alexander Kuzmin)
Russian-US foreign ministers' meeting
Brin will definitely meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Switzerland, on the 21st to discuss whether it is possible to resolve the crisis caused by the SO-called "invasion" of Ukraine by the US side through diplomatic channels.
The United States and other Western countries continue to play up Russia's heavy military gathering in the border areas bordering Ukraine with the intention of "invading"; Russia firmly denies it, and has repeatedly stressed that the deterioration of the situation in Russia and Ukraine is due to the continuous erosion of Russia's security space by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Prior to meeting with Lavrov, Blinken visited Ukraine and met with Its President Vladimir Zelenskiy, and then travelled to Berlin, the capital of Germany, to meet with the Foreign Ministers of Germany, the United Kingdom and France to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, left, meets with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken in Kiev on Jan. 19. (Xinhua News Agency, courtesy of the Office of the President of Ukraine)
Blinken said in Berlin on the 20th that in terms of resolving the crisis through diplomatic channels, his meeting with Lavrov is unlikely to achieve a breakthrough.
"These are the difficult problems we face, and solving them won't be done anytime soon." I don't expect us to resolve them in Geneva tomorrow," Blinken said, "but we can improve mutual understanding, coupled with Russia reducing the build-up of forces outside Ukraine's borders, that will allow us to get out of this crisis in the coming weeks."
U.S. State Department officials earlier disclosed that the U.S. side had approved third-party transfers from NATO partners and allies, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the United Kingdom, to transfer U.S.-made military equipment from those countries' arsenals for Ukraine's use. In addition, the U.S. government has approved additional $200 million worth of equipment support to "meet Ukraine's emergency defense needs."
Under U.S. export controls, countries that acquire weapons from the U.S. must obtain approval from the U.S. Department of State before they can transfer relevant U.S.-made weapons to third parties. (Jiang Guopeng)
Source: Xinhua News Agency