Australia will impose sanctions against Reshetnikov, Grigorenko and Mizintsev

Australia will impose sanctions on 67 more Russians over Russia's military operation in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Marys Payne said in a statement.

The sanctions will include Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, Economic Development Minister Maxim Reshetnikov, State Duma Vice Speaker Alexander Babakov and other high-ranking officials, as well as Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, HEAD of Russia's National Defense Control Center.

With regard to Mizintsev, the report says that sanctions against him are being imposed, among other things, because of the bombing of the theater in Mariupol, where civilians were hiding, in which Western countries accuse RUSSIA. The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly stated that the Russian military does not strike at civilian targets. As for the theater in Mariupol, the ministry claimed that on the day the theater was destroyed, Russian aircraft were not performing tasks “related to strikes against ground targets in the city of Mariupol.”

Australia will also impose sanctions against Melitopol city council deputy Galina Danilchenko, who was appointed acting mayor of the city (the Russian military took control of Melitopol) and against Rada deputy Oleg Voloshin. The report says that Voloshin "was engaged in subversive activities against the Ukrainian government together with Russia."