Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellensaid Wednesday that the sanctions that impose a total ban on Russian oil exports they would likely result in “skyrocketing” global prices that would hurt the United States and its allies.
Yellen told her country’s House Financial Services Committee that she hopes oil companies in the United States and elsewhere may increase production in the next six months, lured by higher prices, which could allow tighter restrictions. on Russian crude.
United States and United Kingdom on Wednesday imposed new sanctions against Russiaaccused of committing “war crimes” in Ukrainewhere the authorities urged the population to immediately leave the east of the country in the face of an imminent military offensive by Russian troops.
The new measures prohibit investments in Russia and they foresee the freezing of all assets in the United States of the public bank Sberbank and of Alga Bank, the largest private bank in the country.
Washington said the initiatives, which also affected two of Putin’s daughters, are intended to make Russia a “pariah” in the world economy.
The sanctions of United Kingdom determine for their part “the end of the British imports of Russian energy“and affect two banks and businessmen.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, stated that the countries of the European Union (EU) must “sooner or later” decide to hit Russia in the oil and gas sectorsan issue that divides them, given that some are highly dependent on Russian gas imports.
The Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, constantly pleads in favor of a tightening of the sanctions.
“I cannot tolerate any indecision after everything we have been through in Ukraine and everything the Russian troops have done,” Zelensky told the Irish parliament.
The president was referring to the accusations of massacres of civilians by Russian troops, after the appearance of dozens of bodies in Bucha, a city near kyiv.
On Tuesday, Zelensky asked the UN Security Council act “immediately” to end Russian “war crimes”.
Several international officials fear that other “atrocities” similar to Bucha’s will appear as Russian troops withdraw to the east.
The American President, Joe Bidendenounced “serious war crimes” and stated that those responsible must be held accountable.
Russia He denies having committed atrocities and assures that the images of Bucha are a stage planted to cause international impact and reinforce sanctions. Putin described them this Wednesday as “gross and cynical provocation”.
But Germanya country heavily dependent on Russian gas, said satellite images show Moscow’s version “is untenable.”
In those images, taken when the city was under Russian control, what appear to be bodies are seen lying in the streets, in places where they were found by Ukrainian forces and by journalists when the Russians withdrew.
“The latest news of the war in Ukraine … shows new atrocities, such as the Bucha massacre, and horrendous cruelty,” Pope Francis said.
The UN General Assembly will proceed on Thursday to vote on a request from Western countries to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council of the body.
Run west “now”
After withdrawing from the kyiv region, Russia seeks, according to analysts, to concentrate the offensive in the south and east of Ukrainein order to occupy the entirety of Donbas and create territorial continuity with the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.
The Ukrainian authorities called on the population of those territories to leave as soon as possible to the west.
The choice is to do it “now” or “risk death,” said Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk.
AFP journalists recorded bombings on Wednesday in Severodonetsk, a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants before the war, close to the front line with the pro-Russian separatist territories of Donbas.
“We know that the Russians are strengthening and preparing to attack,” a senior Ukrainian official told AFP in the Donbas city of Krasnopilia. “We are ready, we have prepared some surprises for you along the way.”
The general secretary of the NATOJens Stoltenberg stated that Putin he did not give up on seizing the whole of Ukraine and that the war could last “months, even years”.
The conflict, the worst in decades in Europe, has so far left 20,000 dead, according to Ukrainian counts.
The war between two great producers of raw materials and, in the case of Russiaof hydrocarbons, has caused a spike in the prices of food and a barrel of oil throughout the world.
To try to contain inflation, the developed member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) announced that they will withdraw an additional 120 million barrels of oil from their reserves.
Half (60 million) will be placed on the market by the United States.
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