More from Reuters on the non-lethal aid:
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - The United States is preparing to send additional non-lethal aid to Ukraine, including unarmed drones and Humvee vehicles, a U.S. defense official said on Wednesday.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said parts of the U.S. package, including 30 Humvees fortified with additional armor, could come within weeks, while other parts could take longer. The aid comes as Ukraine fights against a Russian-backed rebellion in the east. (Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
More U.S. sanctions, including Dugin:
The United States has issued a new list of individuals and entities to be sanctioned over Russia's interference in Ukraine, including Kremlin-connected nationalist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.
The Treasury Department on March 11 also sanctioned a bank in Crimea -- the Russian National Commercial Bank -- two other former officials from the government of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, eight Ukrainian separatists, and two other leaders of Dugin's Eurasian Youth Union.
Any U.S. property held by those individuals is frozen, and U.S. citizens are prohibited from doing business with them.
The United States took the action to "hold accountable those responsible for violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Russian FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov, who has been targeted by sanctions in the EU and Canada, was not on the list of individuals targeted by the Treasury Department in this latest round of sanctions.
BREAKING:
Moscow says it has the right to base nuclear weapons in Crimea:
Russia says it has the right to place nuclear weapons on the Crimean Peninsula.
Mikhail Ulyanovsk, head of the Foreign Ministry's Department on Arms Control, said on March 11 that he does not know "if there are nuclear weapons" in Crimea now and is unaware of any plans by the Russian government to deploy them on the peninsula, "but in principle Russia can do it."
Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine a year ago in a move condemned by Western countries and the United Nations.
Ukraine agreed in 1994 to give up it nuclear arsenal -- the third-largest in the world -- in exchange for security guarantees from Russia, the United States, and Great Britain.
Western military officials have expressed concern over the possibility that Russia could deploy nuclear weapons in Crimea. (Reuters, TASS)