Russia on Tuesday banned United States President Joe Biden from entering its territory, AFP reported. The embargo also applies to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The Russian foreign ministry said that it took the step due to the “extremely Russophobic policy pursued by the current US administration”. The individual sanctions will not affect high-level contacts if required, the ministry said, according to Bloomberg.

In the past few weeks, the United States government has announced several sanctions on Russia on account of its ongoing attack on Ukraine. Earlier on Tuesday, Washington imposed sanctions on Russian military leaders as well as persons who were allegedly linked with human rights abuses, according to Reuters.

The latest sanctions have been imposed against 11 Russian military leaders, including the chief of Russia’s national guard Viktor Zolotov. The sanctions entail the freezing of any assets that they hold in the United States.

On March 8, Biden announced that the country will ban all imports of all oil and gas from Russia. He added that his country “will not be a part of subsidising [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war”.

Last week, Putin had said that Western countries’ sanctions on Russia were like a declaration of war.

Russia on February 24 had invaded Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the invasion as a “special military operation” aimed at dislodging the “neo-Nazis” ruling Ukraine.

Several Western countries have strongly criticised Russia for its actions and have taken economic measures intended to hurt Moscow.

The bombing of several Ukrainian cities has resulted in nearly 50,000 casualties so far.