The United States Treasury Department expanded its sanctions on Belarus, taking aim at the country’s premier airline, Belavia, as well as three more companies and a government office. These additional penalties announced by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Wednesday marked the third anniversary of the disputed re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
OFAC said that the broadened sanctions were a response to Minsk’s “callous crackdown” on the country’s pro-democracy movement and the government’s “complicity” with Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Russian forces launched attacks from positions in Belarus during the invasion of Ukraine last year.