TOKYO: Japan is imposing new sanctions on Russia over its military operation in Ukraine, reported Sputnik, quoting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida(pix) on Friday.
“In addition to the sanctions announced on February 23, our country is intensifying them in the following way: freezing capitals, ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens and entities, freezing assets of financial organisations, ban on the goods that may be used for military purposes,“ Kishida said at a press conference.
Among the restrictions are sanctions on export to organisations related to the military industry as well as on export of such goods as semiconductors and universal purpose goods, the prime minister added.
Later on Friday, Japanese broadcaster TBS reported, citing Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki, that the sanctions would affect three Russian financial institutions – VEB.RF, Promsvyazbank, and Bank Rossiya.
According to Suzuki, the assets of these financial institutions would be frozen.
In the early hours of Thursday, Russia launched a special military operation after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk requested assistance to defend themselves from ongoing attacks by Ukrainian troops. The Russian Defence Ministry said the operation is targeting the military infrastructure of Ukraine and the civilian population is not in danger. Moscow says it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.-Bernama