U.S. sanctions crypto wallets of Russian neo-Nazis
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctions five addresses linked to Russian neo-Nazis.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury is sanctioning five addresses tied to Russian neo-Nazis. They are believed to have committed war crimes in Ukraine, among other offenses.
The U.S. Treasury Department published new sanctions last Thursday, September 15, targeting 22 Russian officials and two organizations. The agency added five wallet addresses to the sanctions blacklist. The digital wallets are linked to the "Task Force Rusich," a paramilitary neo-Nazi unit fighting on the Russian side in the Ukraine war. The sanctions cover two Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses and a Tether wallet.
"The United States will continue to act forcefully to hold Russia accountable for its war crimes, atrocities, and acts of aggression," said Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen in the press statement.
Rusich is alleged to have actively participated in combat operations as part of the notorious Wagner mercenary force in Ukraine near the city of Kharkiv. The leadership around Alexey Milchakov and Yan Petrovskiy is accused, among other things, of desecration of corpses and torturing prisoners of war.
As the American analytics company Chainalysis stated in a report at the end of July, Rusich had received "thousands of U.S. dollars in crypto donations" since the start of the war through various social media accounts.
In total, pro-Russian militias and propaganda sites raised about $2.2 million. Most organizations invested the money in military equipment. Chainalysis, however, said it was unclear how and especially where the material was purchased.
Ukraine buys drones with crypto donations
Since the outbreak of the war, Ukraine has also seen a flood of crypto donations. As Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation, stated in August, the country had received $54.6 million alone from the NGO project "AidForUkraine." This funded reconnaissance drones, body armor, and computer technology.
Overall, willingness to donate has fallen sharply, said Michael Chobanian, CEO of the Ukrainian crypto exchange Kuna..
After territorial losses, Kyiv has been mounting a counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine since early September. According to President Zelenskiy, more than 6,000 square kilometers have been retaken from the Russian occupiers. During the liberation operations, Ukrainian investigators found a total of 433 graves in a forest in the town of Isyum near Kharkiv. Excavations are currently ongoing. Kyiv accuses Russia of war crimes, while the Kremlin rejects the allegations.
