Crimean authorities consider cutting the period of double currencies due to the default risks in Ukraine, said the region’s vice-premier Rustam Temirgaliev.

      In a post on his Facebook page, he claims that some of the major companies are switching over to the rouble in their transactions. The government is considering a withdrawal of the bulk of hryvnas in a short timeframe, he added.

      Previously, the local authorities planned to complete the shift to the Russian currency by early 2016.

      Earlier, Russia-IC reported that the US and Canada introduced additional sanctions against Crimean officials. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has put on its black list the following leaders: Pyotr Zima, Aleksey Chaly, Rustam Temirgaliev, Yury Zherebtsov, Mikhail Malyshev, Valery Medvedev, Sergey Tsekov, and Crimea-based gas company Chernomorneftegaz.

      The previous list included 16 officials and four “members of the inner circle”, including Viktor Ozerov, Vladimir Dzhabarov, Evgeny Bushmin, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Sergey Zheleznyak, Sergey Mironov, Aleksandr Totoonov, Oleg Panteleev, Sergey Naryshkin, Viktor Ivanov, Igor Sergun, Sergei Ivanov, Alexey Gromov, Andrey Fursenko, Vladimir Yakunin, Vladimir Kozhin, Gennady Timchenko, Arkady Rotenberg, Boris Rotenberg, and Yury Kovalchuk.

      Later in the week, Washington warned Russia of further sanctions if Moscow does not “take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine”.

      According to the official Twitter account of the State Department, John Kerry “expressed strong concern that attacks today by militias in Ukraine were orchestrated.”

      Militants are equipped with Russian weapons and the same uniforms as those worn by Russian forces that invaded Crimea, reads the statement.