16:17
‘Incontrovertible evidence that this [war] has been a strategic disaster for Russia’ – White House
White House director of communications Kate Bedingfield is briefing the media now and said that there will be further sanctions on Russia as a result of its invasion of Ukraine just over a month ago – and also that the US has evidence the war is not going well from Moscow’s perspective.
“We have seen incontrovertible evidence that this has been a strategic disaster for Russia,” Bedingfield said a little earlier, as reported by journalists in the White House briefing room, including the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith.
Bedingfield also reiterated that the US needs to see tangible de-escalation of the war by Russia before it will consider any direct talks between Joe Biden and his counterpart, Russian president Vladimir Putin, and there are no plans for them to speak at this point.
Meanwhile, the US commerce department will impose further sanctions on Moscow in the coming days, targeting Russia’s defense, aerospace and maritime sectors, adding 120 entities from Russia and Belarus to its entity list, Bedingfield said.
That will bring the number of Russian and Belarusian parties added to the list to more than 200 since the invasion of Ukraine began, Reuters reports.
The White House believes sanctions are biting.
Updated
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