Zelensky: New sanctions have ‘spectacular look’ but aren’t enough

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video released overnight Wednesday that the latest round of Western sanctions against Moscow does not go far enough, and he renewed his calls for “a complete blockade” of Russian banks and oil.

“This package has a spectacular look, but this is not enough,” Zelensky said in his nightly address.

The sanctions, issued by the United States and European countries, came in response to images of the massacre in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where hundreds were killed, some with their hands tied behind their backs, and buried in mass graves or left on streets.

But the new measures, Zelensky said, “can hardly be called commensurate with the evil that the world saw in Bucha, with the evil that continues in Mariupol, in the shelling of Kharkiv, in Russia’s attempt to launch a new global bloody offensive in Donbas.”

The White House on Wednesday announced sanctions targeting two of Russia’s biggest banks and the adult children of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The United Kingdom also announced sanctions against Russian banks and oligarchs, and the European Union appeared poised to ban imported Russian coal.

Zelensky said the U.S. move to block Russia from using money held in American banks to pay debts was a “tangible” step.

“I’m grateful for that,” he said. “But much more needs to be done to stop the war.”

He called on other leaders to provide Ukraine with more weapons and criticized those who have been reluctant to impose a complete ban on Russian energy exports, a stance he said was costing more Ukrainian lives each day.

“It is the export of oil that is one of the foundations of Russia’s aggression,” Zelensky said.