White House Preparing to Unveil More Sanctions on Russia: National Security Adviser

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, on Feb. 11, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to unveil another round of sanctions against Russia, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on March 22.

The sanctions will be announced in coordination with the European Union.

“[The president] will join our partners in imposing further sanctions on Russia and tightening the existing sanctions to crack down on evasion and to ensure robust enforcement,” Sullivan said at a White House press briefing on March 22.

Sullivan did not provide further details regarding the specifics of the latest sanctions but told reporters the Biden administration will focus on enforcing current sanctions and ensuring that “there is joint effort to crack down on evasion, on sanctions-busting, on any attempt by any country to help Russia basically undermine, weaken, or get around the sanctions.”

Biden is set to leave the White House on March 23 ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels on March 24, where he will be joined by the leaders of the other 29 NATO allies.

“He will join the G-7 leaders and he will address the 27 leaders of the European Union at a session of the European Council. He will have the opportunity to coordinate on the next phase of military assistance to Ukraine,” Sullivan said.

Biden will “work with allies on longer-term adjustments to NATO force posture on the eastern flank” and will “announce joint action on enhancing European energy security and reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas at long last,” Sullivan said.

The president will also announce new U.S. contributions to a coordinated humanitarian response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and help aid the “growing flow of refugees.”

Biden is set to travel to Poland from Brussels, where he will “engage with U.S. troops who are now helping to defend NATO territory, and he will meet with experts involved in the humanitarian response,” Sullivan said.

There, he will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda. Poland has received more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees who have fled the country since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged U.S. support for Poland to address the influx of refugees.

Meanwhile, Duda has requested further U.S. aid and called on NATO to increase its military presence on its eastern flank as the war continues.

Poland has received additional resources from the military alliance during the war, including a Patriot missile defense system and thousands of additional troops from the United States. A British Sky Sabre missile defense system has also been deployed to the country.

Russia’s neighboring countries of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia have also called for a stronger NATO or U.S. military presence in recent weeks.

Biden’s newest sanctions come as the United States and its allies have levied a string of sanctions against Russia targeting the country’s finances and exports, among other things, in an effort to weaken President Vladimir Putin’s position.

The United States has also imposed a ban on Russian energy imports.

While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said March 23 that talks between Ukraine and Russia are moving forward, the war continues to rage on.

Sullivan noted that there will be “hard days ahead in Ukraine—hardest for the Ukrainian troops on the frontlines and the civilians under Russian bombardment,” adding that “this war will not end easily or rapidly.”

However, he said that the West has been “united” in its efforts involving the conflict and that Biden is traveling to Europe to “ensure we stay united, to cement our collective resolve, to send a powerful message that we are prepared and committed to this for as long as it takes, and to advance our response” by “helping the Ukrainian people defend themselves, imposing and increasing costs on Russia, and reinforcing the Western alliance.”