Washington assures Kyiv of the sustainability of its support. American president Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky will sign a bilateral security agreement at the G7 summit in Italy on Thursday, the White House announced on Wednesday.
“The leaders will sign a bilateral security agreement, making it clear that our support will continue long into the future,” Jake Sullivan, the US president’s national security adviser, told reporters accompanying Biden to Italy.
New financial sanctions
The announcement comes after the United States on Wednesday unveiled a new round of sanctions aimed at suffocation the Russian war effort in Ukrainealso putting pressure on financial institutions dealing with the Russian economy, just before the G7 summit.
“Today’s announced measures target the remaining supply routes through which (Russia) procures materials and equipment internationally, including its dependence on essential supplies from third countries,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said of the measures, which include sanctions affecting more of 300 entities, including the Moscow Stock Exchange.
“We are increasing the risk to financial institutions dealing with Russia’s war economy, eliminating opportunities for evasion and reducing Russia’s ability to benefit from access to technology, equipment, software and foreign IT services,” she added, as quoted in the press release.
Moscow has promised to respond to these “aggressive” measures. “Russia, as always in such cases, will not leave the aggressive actions of the United States unanswered,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.