Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Robin Dunnigan spoke to RFE/RL in Vilnius on January 31.
A top U.S. diplomat says sanctions against Russia have been "very effective" in cutting off Russia's war machine and will become increasingly so as time goes on.
Robin Dunnigan, deputy assistant secretary of state for diplomacy in Eastern and Central Europe, said the sanctions included stringent export controls that hinder Russian President Vladimir Putin's ability to rebuild stocks of weapons.
"We are cutting off technological inputs to his war machine," Dunnigan said in an interview with RFE/RL on January 31 during a visit to Vilnius. "So I think now he is expending a lot of his current stock and he will not be able to replenish that stock due to our export controls."
In addition, the financial sanctions are putting pressure on the economy, and "we will see the results of that in the coming months and years."
The Crisis In Belarus
Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka continues his brutal crackdown on NGOs, activists, and independent media following the August 2020 presidential election, widely seen as fraudulent.
Dunnigan also spoke about Belarus's role in the conflict and the sanctions that have been imposed against Minsk. She said Belarus had been an "accomplice" in the war and accused the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka of opposing the will of the majority of Belarusians.
"I do not think that Belarusians want a war against Ukraine to be waged from their country. Therefore, I do not think that he represents the will of his own people," she said. "And I think that's tragic. I think that the consequences for the Belarusian people, who did not want to have anything to do with it, are truly terrible."
Belarusians are feeling the negative consequences of the war, including higher food and energy prices.
She said the United States maintains a dialogue with Belarus to continue pressing for free and fair elections, the release of all political prisoners, and for the government to allow independent media and civil society organizations to operate.
She also noted that many of the sanctions against Belarus were imposed because of its political prisoners, and the United States continues to raise the issue in every conversation with the regime.
"We will continue to emphasize in Europe and the rest of the world the price paid by political prisoners in Belarus," she said.
Dunnigan was scheduled to travel from Lithuania to Poland to meet with her counterpart in the Polish government, and she said one of their conversations would be devoted to the future of sanctions against the regime in Belarus over Lukashenka's "complicity in the war and for the treatment of political prisoners."
