WASHINGTON - The US on May 1 issued hundreds of fresh sanctions targeting Russia over the war in Ukraine in action that took aim at Moscow's circumvention of Western measures, including through China.

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on nearly 200 targets, while the State Department designated more than 80 in one of the most wide-ranging actions against Chinese companies so far in Washington’s sanctions aimed at Russia.

The US imposed sanctions on 20 companies based in China and Hong Kong, following repeated warnings from Washington about Beijing’s support for Russia’s military, including during recent trips by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the country.

China’s support for Russia is one of the many issues threatening to sour the recent improvement in relations between the world’s biggest economies.

“Treasury has consistently warned that companies will face significant consequences for providing material support for Russia’s war, and the US is imposing them today on almost 300 targets,” Dr Yellen said in a statement.

Mr Liu Pengyu, spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington, said the government oversees the export of dual-use articles in accordance with laws and regulations, adding that normal trade and economic interactions between China and Russia are in line with World Trade Organisation rules and market principles.

“The Chinese side firmly opposes the US’ illegal unilateral sanctions,” he said.

The US and its allies have imposed sanctions on thousands of targets since Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine.

The war has seen tens of thousands killed and cities destroyed.

Washington has since sought to crack down on evasion of the Western measures, including by issuing sanctions on firms in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Treasury’s action on May 1 sanctioned nearly 60 targets located in Azerbaijan, Belgium, China, Russia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Slovakia that it accused of enabling Russia to “acquire desperately needed technology and equipment from abroad”.

The move included measures against a China-based company that the Treasury said exported items for the production of drones – such as propellers, engines and sensors – to a company in Russia. Other China- and Hong Kong-based technology suppliers were also targeted.

The State Department also imposed sanctions on four China-based companies that it accused of supporting Russia's defence industrial base, including by shipping critical items to entities under US sanctions in Russia, as well as on companies in Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and Malaysia that it accused of shipping high-priority items to Russia.

“The concern about entities in the PRC supplying Russia’s war is in focus at the highest levels of the Department and the administration. The reason is very simple: The PRC is the leading supplier of critical components for Russia’s defence industrial base, and Russia is using them to prosecute its war on Ukraine,” a senior State Department official said, referring to China by its official name, the People’s Republic of China or PRC.

“If the PRC were to end its support for exporting these items, Russia would struggle to sustain its war effort.”

The Treasury also targeted Russia’s acquisition of explosive precursors needed by the country to keep producing gunpowder, rocket propellants and other explosives in the May 1 action, including through sanctions on two China-based suppliers sending the substances to Russia.

Chemical weapons, future energy

The US also accused Russia of violating a global ban on chemical weapons by repeatedly deploying choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and using riot control agents “as a method of warfare” in Ukraine.

This was denied by the Kremlin on May 2.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow remained bound by its obligations under the treaty that bans chemical weapons.

The State Department also expanded its targeting of Russia’s future ability to ship liquefied natural gas, or LNG, one of the country’s top exports.

It designated two vessel operators involved in transporting technology, including gravity-based structure equipment, or concrete legs that support offshore platforms, for Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project.

Previous US sanctions on Arctic LNG 2 in April forced Novatek, Russia’s largest LNG producer, to suspend production at the project, which suffered a shortage of tankers to ship the fuel.

Also targeted were subsidiaries of Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosatom as well as 12 entities within the Sibanthracite group of companies, one of Russia’s largest producers of metallurgical coal, the State Department said.

Washington also imposed sanctions on Russian air carrier Pobeda, a subsidiary of Russian airline Aeroflot.

The US Commerce Department has previously added more than 200 Boeing and Airbus airplanes operated by Russian airlines to an export control list as part of the Biden administration’s sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Navalny death

The State Department also targeted three people in connection with the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny – the best-known domestic critic of President Vladimir Putin – who died in February in a Russian Arctic prison.

The Russian authorities say he died of natural causes. His followers believe he was killed by the authorities, which the Kremlin denies.

The May 1 action targeted the director of the correctional colony in Russia where Navalny was held for the majority of his imprisonment, as well as the head of the solitary confinement detachment and the head of the medical unit at the colony where he was imprisoned before his death.

The officials oversaw the cells where Navalny was kept in solitary confinement, the walking yard where he allegedly collapsed and died, and Navalny’s health, including in the immediate aftermath of his collapse, the State Department said. REUTERS