5 Russian banks have been hit with heavy sanctions by the United Kingdom, a few hours after President Vladimir Putin recognised the independence of some parts of Ukraine as he pushes to invade the country.
According to the reports from the UK, Boris Johnson announced the economic sanctions against the 5 Russian banks after Russia broke international law by sending troops to Ukraine.
The UK prime minister has warned Vladimir Putin is bent on a ‘full scale invasion’ of the country following weeks of military build-up on the border.
Mr Johnson accused Putin of ‘establishing the pre-text of a full-scale offensive’ and ‘plotting the destruction of a peaceful neighbour’.
He told MPs in the House of Commons: ‘If the worst happens then a European nation of 44 million men, women and children would become the target of a full-scale war of aggression waged without a shred of justification.’
He confirmed the UK will sanction the 5 Russian banks, including the General Bank and the Black Sea bank. He also said three ‘very high net worth’ Russian individuals will be sanctioned and their assets in the UK will be frozen.
These are Gennady Timchenko and Boris and Igor Rotenberg – three individuals who are ‘very close to the Putin regime’.
The prime minister said the UK will not give up on reaching a diplomatic solution.
But he said: ‘We have to face the possibility that none of our messages has been heeded and that Putin is implacably determined to go further in subjugating and tormenting Ukraine.’
Mr Johnson added that the measures announced today are only the beginning of sanctions and more will be announced as the situation develops.
‘This the first tranche, the first barrage of what we are prepared to do and we hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed,’ he said.
But Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged him to go further and announce more sanctions now.
He said the UK must ‘get its own house in order’, saying it has failed to stop the flow of Russian finance into the country.
‘This must be a turning point,’ he said, adding that ‘oligarch impunity’ must end and anti-money laundering laws must be enforced.
It comes after British citizens still living in Ukraine were urged to leave immediately amid warnings an invasion of Ukraine ‘has already begun’.
The Foreign Office has summoned the Russian ambassador for a meeting today to discuss the crisis.
The sanctions were agreed at an early morning emergency meeting of the Cobra committee.
Earlier, the prime minister said the sanctions ‘will hit Russia very hard’ and target the ‘economic interests that have been supporting Russia’s war machine’.
He said: ‘This is I should stress is just the first barrage of UK economic sanctions against Russia because we expect I’m afraid that there is more Russian irrational behaviour to come.
‘I’m afraid all the evidence is that President Putin is indeed bent on a full-scale invasion of the Ukraine, the overrunning, the subjugation of an independent, sovereign European country and I think, let’s be absolutely clear, that will be absolutely catastrophic.’
The prime minister said Putin had ‘completely torn up international law’ and is seemingly intent on capturing the capital of Kyiv.
Mr Johnson said that if Mr Putin continues down on the path to ‘encircling Kyiv itself, which is what he seems to be proposing to do, capturing the Ukrainian capital’ then it is vital his efforts ‘should not succeed and that Putin should fail’.
The UK sanctions follow similar measures from Germany and the US.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced today that the certification of a crucial gas pipeline between Russia and Germany cannot go ahead.
Meanwhile, the White House issued an executive order last night to prohibit US investment and trade in the separatist regions of Ukraine.
Those sanctions are independent of what Washington has prepared in the event of a full-scale Russian invasion, officials said.
The sanctions follow an emergency session of the UN Security Council, where the UK’s ambassador, Dame Barbara Woodward, said Russia has ‘brought us to the brink’ and warned that the country’s actions ‘will have severe and far-reaching consequences’.
She said an invasion would unleash ‘the forces of war, death and destruction’ on the people of Ukraine.
‘The humanitarian impact will be terrible on civilians fleeing the fighting. We know that women and children will suffer most,’ she added.
Ukrainian forces have been fighting pro-Russian rebels in the east since 2014, following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
More than 14,000 people have been killed in this conflict, and breaches of a ceasefire agreed in 2015 have been common. Critics say Moscow’s move yesterday is an attempt to extend its reach over large swathes of its neighbour’s territory.
Since January Russia has engaged in its biggest military build-up since the Cold War – amassing as many as 190,000 troops along Ukraine’s border.
Forces carried out joint-drills with Belarus – an ally of the Kremlin – but Putin continually denied plans to invade.
At the time, he demanded legal guarantees that Ukraine is never allowed to join Nato.
The Russian leader feels the defensive alliance has expanded far too eastwards and poses a threat to Moscow.
He worries that if Ukraine became a member, it would have the military power to take back Crimea.
But Western leaders including Boris Johnson have said Ukraine has every right to form any defensive alliance it chooses without being bullied by its neighbour.