The United States is sanctioning Russian President Vladimir Putin's adult daughters, as well as Americans investing in Moscow among a slew of new targets, it has been announced today.
President Joe Biden has also targeted Russian banks and elites among the new package of sanctions.
They include banning any American from investing in Russia, after Washington and Kyiv accused Moscow of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
The US will also put full blocking sanctions on Russia's Sberbank, which holds one-third of Russia's total banking assets, and Alfabank.
The announcement included the Russian President’s adult daughters, Katerina Tikhonovna and Maria Putina, who are both in their 30s and rarely seen in public.
President Biden said on Twitter the sanctions were a direct result of atrocities in the Ukrainian city Bucha, where the bodies of people tortured and shot at close range were found, appalling the world.
He wrote: "I made clear that Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in Bucha.
"Today, along with our Allies and partners, we’re announcing a new round of devastating sanctions."
Today’s updated list also include Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's wife and daughter, as well as members of Russia's security council, an official said.
CNBC quoted the senior official saying: "We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members, and that’s why we’re targeting them."
He added the new sanctions would "dramatically escalate" the financial pain on the Kremlin by cutting off its largest banks, sending living conditions in the country back to the Soviet era "in the 1980s".
A statement released by the White House said: "Today, the United States, with the G7 and the European Union, will continue to impose severe and immediate economic costs on the Putin regime for its atrocities in Ukraine, including in Bucha.
"We will document and share information on these atrocities and use all appropriate mechanisms to hold accountable those responsible.
"As one part of this effort, the United States is announcing devastating economic measures to ban new investment in Russia, and impose the most severe financial sanctions on Russia’s largest bank and several of its most critical state-owned enterprises and on Russian government officials and their family members.
"These sweeping financial sanctions follow our action earlier this week to cut off Russia’s frozen funds in the United States to make debt payments. Importantly, these measures are designed to reinforce each other to generate intensifying impact over time.
"As long as Russia continues its brutal assault on Ukraine, we will stand unified with our allies and partners in imposing additional costs on Russia for its actions."
He added of the sanctions aimed at Putin's family and allies: "These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people.
"Some of them are responsible for providing the support necessary to underpin Putin’s war on Ukraine.
"This action cuts them off from the U.S. financial system and freezes any assets they hold in the United States."
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, one of the US’ most senior officials previously claimed Russia is on a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape”.
His claims came as a number of horrific accounts emerged from Bucha and other towns in Kyiv Oblast about Russian soldiers slaughtering innocents.
Civilians were found in the road with their hands bound before they had been shot and mass graves of half-buried bodies were uncovered.
Videos released by Ukrainian troops showed them driving through the town, having to slalom around dead bodies left behind by retreating Russian soldiers.
Bucha’s mayor estimated over 300 people had been slaughtered.
