US news

US expands Russian sanctions and plans to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees

• US targets more than half of members of Russia’s parliament
• Country to step up assistance for Ukrainians fleeing war

A plane over Washington this week. Washington will also provide more than $1bn in new humanitarian assistance for the ‘for those affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine’. Photograph: Rex

Julian Borger in WashingtonThu

24 Mar 2022 15.30 GMTFirst published on Thu 24 Mar 2022 11.56 GMT

The US has announced new sanctions on more than 400 Russians deemed to be part of the country’s elite – including more than half the members of parliament – as part of campaign to increase the price Moscow pays for the invasion of Ukraine, while stepping up assistance to Ukrainians.

Russia-Ukraine war: Nato has never been more united, says Biden; Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners – live

The administration also announced it would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, almost as many as the current cap for the total number of refugees the US accepts from around the world.

The White House said that the new sanctions, announced on Thursday while Joe Biden is in Brussels to meet Nato, G7 and EU partners and allies, are “unprecedented”.

“In no other circumstance have we moved so swiftly and in such a coordinated fashion to impose devastating costs on any other country,” it said in a statement.

Along with 328 members of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, who have voiced support for the invasion, the Duma as a whole was blacklisted, as well prominent bankers, including Herman Gref, the head of Sberbank and a close Putin ally, and the top officials and board members from PJSC Sovcombank.

“They personally gain from the Kremlin’s policies, and they should share in the pain,” Biden said in a tweet.

The sanctions also target 48 companies in Russia’s defence industry, aimed at cutting them off from access to western technological and financial resources.

“Today’s action will have a deep and long-lasting effect on Russia’s defense-industrial base and its supply chain,” the US Treasury said.

A senior administration official said that the mounting wall of sanctions would be devastating for the Russian economy.

“[Putin is] looking, as I mentioned, at a contraction in his economy … Some people estimate 10%, others 15%, other people say more. That is three times larger than the contraction Russia faced after it defaulted in 1998,” the official said.

“If you consider the depreciation of the rouble already and the projected shrinking of its economy, it’s now looking at an economy half of the size that it was before this invasion.”

The official said those figures would mean Russia dropped from 11th biggest economy in the world to 20th.

Washington will also provide more than $1bn in new humanitarian assistance “for those affected by Russia’s war in Ukraine and its severe impacts around the world, including a marked rise in food insecurity, over the coming months”.

The money will go towards food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of aid. An additional $320m will be spent on funding democracy and human rights efforts in Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

At his meetings in Brussels, Biden has been encouraging partners and allies to keep turning the screw on Moscow until it halts its invasion and the mass killing of Ukrainian citizens. The administration has conceded that it will not be able to persuade Germany and some other EU countries, far more dependent on Russia than the US for energy, to stop buying Moscow’s oil and gas immediately, but Biden is due to announce a new strategy for lessening that reliance, which will involve stepped up deliveries of US liquefied natural gas.