U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday to meet with Ukrainian officials for talks about tightening sanctions on Russia and financial support for Ukraine.
He said the U.S. plans to take further measures to put pressure on Russia’s economy.
“Russia’s economy has become a wartime economy where every means of production and industry is now focused on building weapons to fight their war of choice and aggression here in Ukraine,” Adeyemo said Wednesday in Ukraine’s capital. “We need to do everything that we can to go after that.”
Adeyemo said the Treasury’s priority is to reduce Russian revenue and prevent Russia from obtaining the goods it needs to support its defense industrial base, including dual-use goods from China.
Washington has sanctioned more than 4,000 individuals and businesses since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Daleep Singh, a senior White House official said this week that the language of the sanctions could be changed, which could open the door to secondary sanctions, according to Reuters.
Russian attacks
Ukraine said Wednesday that eight people were killed in a series of Russian attacks across four regions.
A missile attack killed two and injured three in the Sumy region, according to regional authorities.
Two were killed in attacks in Ukraine’s southern city of Nikopol, regional governor Sergiy Lysak said.
Governor Vadym Filashkin of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said three people were killed Tuesday in separate attacks.
Kherson’s Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said “one person died as a result of Russian aggression.”
Ukraine’s military operations
Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it shot down Russian drones that targeted areas of western, central and southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian air force said it intercepted 13 of 14 Russian drones used in overnight attacks against the Mykolaiv, Kirovohrad and Rivne regions.
Vitaliy Kim, the regional governor of Mykolaiv, said air defenses shot down 11 of the drones in his area. Kim did not report any damage or injuries from the drones.
Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday it destroyed two naval drones moving toward the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula, as well as an aerial drone and seven rockets over the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine.
Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, said Wednesday that air defenses downed a Ukrainian drone over the city of Armavir.
Rising death toll
The death toll from a Russian strike last weekend on a hardware store in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has risen to 19, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said Wednesday.
Two of those killed in the attack Saturday were minors, Klymenko said on Telegram. The recovery operation at the store has concluded. Russia did not comment on the attack, but it says it doesn’t target civilian sites.
Sweden funding
Sweden announced Wednesday a $1.2 billion military aid package for Ukraine, which includes radar reconnaissance and command aircraft, artillery ammunition and armored vehicles.
“It consists of equipment that is at the top of Ukraine’s priority list,” Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch said.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
