President Joe Biden’s family is persona non grata in Moscow.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said it added 25 people to the list of Americans banned from entering Russia “as a response to the ever-expanding U.S. sanctions against Russian political and public figures.” Included are first lady Jill Biden and the couple’s daughter Ashley. The president was included on a previous list.
The latest list also includes four senators the ministry blames for “the formation of the Russophobic course” in Congress. They are Republicans Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Ben Sasse and Democrat Kirstin Gillibrand.
The U.S. and other countries have hit numerous Russian oligarchs with sanctions that have led to seizure of massive yachts and other property.
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Latest developments:
►A Russian court has rejected an appeal by imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
►16 Ukrainian servicemen, including 2 officers, and one civilian, were released in a prisoner exchange. Five were wounded, Ukraine authorities said. The number of Russians released was not immediately revealed.
Death toll rises in mall missile strike
The death toll rose to more than 20 Tuesday from a missile strike on a shopping mall Monday that wounded scores of shoppers, said Kirill Timoshenko, spokesman for the Office of the President. At least 40 people were missing as rescue workers searched through the rubble in central city of Kremenchuk, Timoshenko told Ukraine news media. At at least 59 people were injured, 25 of them requiring hospitalization, he said.
More than 1,000 people were at the mall when the missile hit, authorities say. The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting in New York on Tuesday to discuss the attack. Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, implied on Twitter that the attack might have been faked, cited “striking discrepancies” in reports on the tragedy.
Contributing: The Associated Press