The UK announces sanctions against Russia in response to Vladimir Putin declaring independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Boris Johnson has named five banks whose assets will be frozen. He also announced three Russian billionaires who had been given a UK travel ban. Johnson said that this is just the “first barrage” of sanctions and could get worse if Russia continues to invade.
US and EU have also imposed a sanction of their own. This is part of a coordinated response by the West to the growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The UK is also planning to sanction members of the Russian Parliament who voted to recognize the independence of eastern Ukraine. The sanctions will be most likely the same as those of the Russian billionaires.
In the upcoming weeks, they will be preventing any business of financing of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. This similarly happened when Russia reclaimed Crimea. They said that they are willing to slap additional “unprecedented” measures and are prepared for more.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson also said that President Putin is “establishing the pretext for a full-scale offensive.” His statements were based on satellite reports of Russian troops massing on different areas near the border.
The EU has announced plans to target the Russian parliament as well as banks that are financing the Russian military. Germany has also frozen the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project with Russia.
MPs also called for additional sanctions on Russia such as excluding them from the global Swift payment platform. They also wanted a ban on trading Russian sovereign debt. A proposal also includes the prevention of Russia spreading any false propaganda to the world. They suggest that if the full sanctions are not done now, then the Russian President might think invasion outweighs these sanctions.