Japan announced on Tuesday the imposition of new sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, with the freezing of the assets of 398 Russians in the country, including the daughters of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"To prevent the situation from escalating further and to reach a ceasefire to end the invasion as soon as possible, it is necessary to adopt severe sanctions," Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference.

To the Expresso newspaper, quoted Lusa, Matsuno, "heinous and inhumane acts are being revealed not only in Bucha, but also in many other places. The killing of innocent civilians violates international law and is a war crime."

Japan has added Ekaterina Tikhonova and Maria Vorontsova, Putin's daughters, and Maria Lavrova and Ekaterina Lavrova, wife and daughter respectively of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, to a list that already numbers 499 individuals.

Most of the individuals included on the list are connected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, and the military forces of the Russian Federation.

Tokyo also decided to adopt additional sanctions against 28 Russian companies and organizations, including Sberbank and Alfa Bank. The Japanese sanctions currently cover a total of 47 entities.

Since the beginning of the conflict, Japan has imposed sanctions on Russian and Belarusian entities and citizens, including Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.

The punitive measures also affect exports of Japanese products with potential military use or luxury goods to Russia, Russian imports of certain products, and transactions with virtual currencies.

On April 8, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced that Japan would renounce the purchase of Russian coal and expel eight Russian diplomats, following allegations of massacres of civilians by Russian troops in the Kiev region.

Also the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union had already announced sanctions against Putin's two daughters last week.