Ukraine lobbies US officials for bans on Russia software, aviation - diplomat

Ukraine's government is lobbying the Biden administration to cut Russia off from US software updates, to ban Russian flights, and to block the supply of goods to Russia's civil aviation industry in an effort to rally support for drastic sanctions while the Kremlin pushes deeper into Ukrainian territory. The demands, which a Ukrainian diplomat in Washington circulated on Thursday in a brief 14-point memo to American officials, go beyond export control measures promised by the White House, which has vowed to spare Russian consumers from the brunt of sanctions. The Ukrainians asked their American counterparts to bar US companies from "supplying and updating software in the interests of Russian consumers" or from supplying US telecommunications products, including microelectronics, to Russia. In addition, the Ukrainians called on the United States to bar the supply of goods and technologies, including software for use in the Russian aviation industry, including civil aviation. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Biden administration was working on a plan to cut Russia off from a vast swath of low- and high-tech US and foreign-made goods, from commercial electronics and computers to semiconductors and aircraft parts. read more The US Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. <br/>