The White House will reveal new sanctions against Russia later this week in response to the death of popular dissident and opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters on Tuesday that the White House would announce “a major sanctions package on Friday of this week to hold Russia accountable for what happened to Mr. Navalny and, quite frankly, for all its actions over the course of this vicious and brutal war.”
Kirby declined to provide specific details of the sanctions that will be announced later this week, though he reiterated that the sanctions are “designed to hold Mr. Putin accountable for now two years of war in Ukraine, but also specifically supplemented with additional sanctions regarding Mr. Navlany’s death.”
President Joe Biden blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for Navalny’s death in comments on Friday and added on Monday that he is “considering additional sanctions.”
In 2021, Biden warned that if Navalny were to die while in a Russian prison, which is what ultimately occurred, there would be “devastating” consequences for Russia.
Russian prison services reported that Navalny, Putin’s top domestic critic, died in a jail located near the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to work at a penal colony for 19 years. Putin’s critics are frequently imprisoned for criticizing him, while some are assassinated.
The administration has sought to highlight Russia’s actions in an effort to convince House Republicans to pass his long-sought national security supplemental package, which would include tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine. The U.S. has not been able to provide military aid to Ukraine since late last year due to a lack of funding.
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The lack of U.S. support is starting to affect the battlefield. Ukraine withdrew this weekend from the city of Avdiivka.
“They practically ran out of supplies, including artillery ammunition,” Kirby said. “And for many months, we’ve talked about how Russia was trying to take Avdiivka as part of its offensive in the east. We’ve talked about how Russia had suffered thousands and thousands of casualties in the process. For months, Ukraine’s been able to keep the Russian attacks at bay until they started to run out of ammunition, particularly with respect to artillery, the kinds of ammunition that they needed to prevent those Russian forces from reaching Ukrainian defensive lines and overrunning those positions.”