Belarus targeted with dozens of sanctions over Russian invasion

The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on dozens of Belarusian individuals and entities in response to Minsk allowing the country to be a staging ground for Russia’s invasion into Ukraine.

The sanctions target 24 individuals and Belarusian entities largely in the defense sector and financial institutions that have especially close ties to Russia, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

The designations announced Thursday build on five previous Belarus-related sanctions tranches imposed by the U.S. and allies in response to a fraudulent power grab by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko after the 2020 elections and imposing a violent crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in the country.

“Having already sacrificed its legitimacy to suppress the democratic aspirations of the Belarusian people, the Lukashenka regime is now jeopardizing Belarus’s sovereignty by supporting Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.

“Treasury continues to disrupt Belarus’s military and financial capabilities through targeted sanctions. Further, due to the interconnectedness between the two countries, the actions Treasury took against Russia today will also impose severe economic pain on the Lukashenka regime.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday launched an invasion against Ukraine using Russian troops that were pre-positioned in Belarus on Ukraine’s northern border under what the Kremlin had earlier said was military exercises. Reuters reported this included “columns of troops” pouring in from across the border in Belarus.