The US has imposed sanctions on over 400 entities and individuals that support Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.

These include Chinese companies, which US officials believe are helping Moscow circumvent Western sanctions and bolster its army.

The State Department’s sanctions include moves to strangle Russia’s energy sector and target companies in Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Central Asian economies that the US believes are helping Russia evade sanctions, the State Department states.

Among the sanctions targets is the import-export bracket of China’s Dalian Machine Tool Group, which the State Department says supplied Russian companies with $4 million worth of dual-use items.

China claims it is not supplying weapons to Russia for the war in Ukraine, but it defends, as it puts it, normal trade relations between China and Russia. These latest US sanctions include measures against companies that supply components used in Russia’s Orlan drones, which Moscow uses in Ukraine.

Washington has also sought sanctions to derail future energy projects in Russia and the shipping of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It targeted Russia’s $21 billion Arctic LNG 2 project, already hit by Western sanctions, which have restricted access by icebreaker tankers, as well as other companies involved in future energy projects in Russia, according to the news bulletin.

The sanctions also target companies involved in transportation, such as United Arab Emirates-based White Fox Ship Management, which the US says recently acquired four tankers to transport liquefied natural gas.

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