The United States imposed hundreds of new sanctions targeting Russia's defense industry, as well as targeting individuals and entities in third countries that are alleged to support it, the US Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
"Today’s actions target Russia’s military-industrial base and chemical and biological weapons programs as well as companies and individuals in third countries that help Russia acquire key inputs for weapons or defense-related production," the Treasury Department said in a press release.
The United States has also imposed punitive measures on the 48th Central Scientific and Research Institute of the Russian Ministry of Defense for being allegedly associated with Russia's biological weapons program.
The State Department claims in the release that the decision to designate the entity came after it determined that Russia had allegedly used the chemical weapon chloropicrin against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The State Department did not provide any evidence of Russia's alleged use of chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military amid the ongoing conflict.
Besides the 48th Research Institute, the State Department and the Department of the Treasury have also imposed sanctions on Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops of the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Scientific Research Institute of Applied Acoustic and the Russian airline Pobeda, according to the release.
The Russian Defense Ministry has on many occasions accused the United States of funding research for the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. In the first months after the start of the special military operation, the Russian military said they had discovered over 30 biological laboratories in Ukraine involved in the research. Washington has denied the allegations.