WASHINGTON, April 6. /TASS/. The United States attempts to cut off Russia from access to dollars needed to service the foreign debt, a high ranking government official said on Wednesday.

"On Monday, we cut off Russia's ability to use its frozen central bank funds to make debt payments. And so Russia will now have to find new sources of dollars from outside the US and to find a new payment route other than US banks, to avoid falling into default. And that's Russia's choice as to how it proceeds," the official said.

"And of course, even if Russia taps into other sources of hard currency, to remain current on its debt obligations, that will translate into fewer resources available to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to fund his war machine," he added.

"The U.S. Treasury prohibited Russia from making debt payments with funds subject to U.S. jurisdiction," the White House said in its fact sheet released on Wednesday. "Sanctions do not preclude payments on Russian sovereign debt at this time, provided Russia uses funds outside of U.S. jurisdiction," the White House added.