KYIV, June 24 - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has imposed sanctions against Dmytro Firtash, a powerful tycoon indicted by the United States for corruption, RFE/RL reported Thursday.

In a decree signed on Thursday, Zelenskiy also slapped sanctions on dozens of businessmen and enterprises with alleged links to Russia's defense sector.

The world's largest titanium producer, VSMPO-AVISMA, was hit with sanctions as was the Russian-based company's director Sergei Chemezov and his deputy, Mikhail Shelkov.

Ukraine's National Security Council last week announced the sanctions against Firtash, accusing him of selling titanium products that are used by Russian military enterprises.

The sanctions against Firtash and his Group DF include an asset freeze, ban on capital withdrawal, revocation of licenses, restriction of resource transit, and other restrictions.

He is currently living in Vienna while fighting extradition to the United States.

Firtash earlier this week denied the allegations behind Kyiv's move to impose the sanctions.

Firtash's lawyer in the United States, Lanny Davis, said on June 21 that his client had not been officially notified of the decision to impose sanctions against him.

Nonetheless, "Mr. Firtash categorically denies the allegations, which he says are wrong," Davis said, refusing to comment further.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia-backed separatists in its eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014, following Moscow's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

Kyiv accuses Moscow of sending troops and arms to support the separatists, whom it calls terrorists.

Firtash, one of Ukraine's richest men and a one-time ally of ousted Russia-friendly President Viktor Yanukovych, is wanted for bribery and racketeering charges in the United States.

Firtash denies those charges as well, calling them politically motivated. He is currently seeking a new trial after Austria's Supreme Court upheld his extradition in 2019.

If extradited, the oligarch faces many years in prison in the United States.

Zelenskiy also extended for another three years sanctions against dozens of Russian banks for their alleged support of Kremlin-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

A three-year extension was also decreed for similar sanctions against Russian tycoons, including Arkady Rotenberg, Russian energy giant Gazprom chief Aleksei Miller, and oligarch Oleg Deripaska. (rfe/ez)