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U.S. slaps sanctions on more rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine

Xinhua, March 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on more rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine in an effort to press for the implementation of peace deals.

The Department of Treasury targeted eight insurgents, including Roman Lyagin, who has served as the chairman of the Central Election Commission and minister of social and labor policy of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic, and Yuriy Ivakin, a leader of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic.

The Eurasian Youth Union and its three leaders were blacklisted as the group was accused of "actively" recruiting persons with military and combat experience to fight for the Donetsk People's Republic.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions against the Russian National Commercial Bank, the largest in Crimea, for its help in incorporating the Ukrainian region into Russia.

Mykola Azarov, Serhiy Arbuzov and Raisa Bohatyriova, three senior officials who served under Ukraine's pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych, were hit with sanctions as well.

Peace deals signed in September last year and in February this year in the Belarusian capital of Minsk have not been fully implemented, with sporadic fighting being reported daily in Ukraine's east.

"The United States supports the Minsk agreements and views them as the best means to a diplomatic resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

It said the sanctions, which bar Americans from doing business with those targeted and freeze all of their assets under U.S. jurisdiction, were following similar actions taken last month by the European Union and Canada.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday discussed the sanctions and additional non-lethal aid to Kiev with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in a phone conversation.

Biden "noted with concern the ongoing violations of the cease-fire by Russia-backed separatists near Donetsk and Mariupol and their refusal to allow OSCE monitors unfettered access to the territory they occupy," the White House said in a statement.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is serving as a mediator and observer of the implementation of the Minsk peace deals. Endi