The Hague — Dutch customs authorities have impounded 14 yachts in shipyards, together with 12 nonetheless below building, as a part of still-growing Western sanctions imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the federal government mentioned Wednesday. European and U.S. authorities have seized a number of yachts with hyperlinks to Russian tycoons below the unprecedented sanctions that adopted the February 24 invasion.
"Given the present measures, these vessels can't be delivered, transferred or exported for the second," Overseas Minister Wopke Hoekstra wrote in a letter to the Dutch parliament.
The 12 yachts below building, which embrace luxurious vessels greater than 38 yards lengthy, had been being inbuilt 5 completely different shipyards for "Russian beneficiaries," the federal government mentioned. The opposite two yachts are presently present process upkeep.
"These will not be individuals who determine on the European sanctions lists," the Dutch minister mentioned. The "possession" of the yachts was being investigated additional, nevertheless, together with whether or not one in all them was related to an individual on the European sanctions listing, Hoekstra mentioned.
"The federal government attaches nice significance to the respect and implementation of sanctions," he added.
The Netherlands has additionally frozen 516 million euros' price of property and 155 million euros in transactions, the minister mentioned.
The U.S. was poised to announce a brand new sanctions package deal towards Russia on Wednesday in response to reported atrocities round Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, sources conversant in the forthcoming penalties confirmed to CBS Information this week.
The extra sanctions had been to be introduced in coordination with the Group of seven and European Union, and had been designed to impose "important prices" on Russia for its brutalities in Ukraine, the sources mentioned. The measures will embrace a ban on all new funding in Russia, elevated sanctions on monetary establishments and state-owned enterprises, and sanctions on Russian authorities officers and members of their households.
The measures are meant to "degrade key devices on Russian state energy" and impose swift financial hurt on Russia, based on the sources.