WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United States imposed new sanctions Tuesday on Russia’s President Alexander Lukashenko. This increased pressure on Moscow and an ally during the conflict in Ukraine.

Four people were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department and one entity. They are accused of conspiring to conceal events that led to Sergei Magnitsky’s passing or for being involved in human rights violations committed against Oyub Titiev, a human rights activist.

According to the Treasury statement, Lukashenko’s sanctions were being increased and his wife also targeted.

The sanctions were the latest U.S. measures against Moscow following the Russian invasion of Ukraine three weeks ago, the largest attack on any European country since World War Two. Moscow called the attack a “special operations.”

“Today’s designations demonstrate the United States will continue to impose concrete and significant consequences for those who engage in corruption or are connected to gross violations of human rights,” the head of the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, Andrea Gacki, said in the statement.

“We condemn Russia’s attacks on humanitarian corridors in Ukraine and call on Russia to cease its unprovoked and brutal war against Ukraine.”

Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer was arrested after he claimed that Russian officials had been involved in massive tax fraud. Magnitsky, who complained of being mistreated, died in Moscow in 2009.

Oyub Titiev (head of Memorial human rights Centre in Chechnya) was taken into custody and charged with illegal drug possession. Titiev stated that the police had placed the drugs on Titiev during a shake-down. His sentence was four years imprisonment in a penal colony.