Britain ramps up sanctions against Russia as another 200 people are targeted – including east Ukraine’s breakaway leaders and the wife of Putin’s attack dog foreign minister
- Britain announces action against another 206 individuals after Russia’s invasion
- The fresh sanctions follow ‘horrific’ rocket attacks on civilians in east Ukraine
- Those targeted include the self-styled leaders of breakaway regions
- The wife of Kremlin Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also punished
Britain today slapped sanctions on another 200 people in fresh action over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and following ‘horrific’ rocket attacks on civilians in the country’s east.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has targeted the latest round of British sanctions against the self-styled leaders of Kremlin-backed breakaway regions in the Donbas, southeastern Ukraine.
Punitive measures have been imposed on those who prop up the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, as well as further family members of Russian oligarchs and Vladimir Putin’s allies.
Both Alexander Ananchenko and Sergey Kozlov, the self-styled Prime Minister and Chair of Government of the Donetsk and Luhansk illegal breakaway regions, have been hit with sanctions in the latest action.
Pavel Ezubov, the cousin of billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripraska; Ngina Zairova, executive assistant to Mikhail Fridman, the owner of one of Russia’s largest private banks; and Gulbakhor Ismailova, the sister of former Arsenal Football Club shareholder Alisher Usmanov, have also been targeted.
And the action extends to further parts of Mr Putin’s close circle of allies, such as Maria Lavrova, the wife of Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who has been handed a travel ban and asset freeze.
His daughter, Yekaterina Vinokurova, has already been sanctioned.
Mr Lavrov – who has a reputation for being Mr Putin’s attack dog and who dramatically clashed with Ms Truss in Moscow prior to Russia’s invasion – is also said to have a ‘second family’ with his alleged mistress.
Russia last week provoked further international outrage at its atrocities in Ukraine when more than 50 people died in a rocket attack in Kramatorsk
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has seen his wife targeted in the latest British sanctions. She has been handed a travel ban and asset freeze
Today’s action against 178 individuals has been coordinated with the EU, but a further 28 people have also been separately sanctioned by the UK.
Britain has now sanctioned more than 1,400 individuals and businesses since the Russian President began his brutal assault on his country’s neighbour.
This includes more than 100 oligarchs and their family members.
The government will also tomorrow confirm new laws to ban the import of Russian iron and steel products, as well as the export of British quantum technologies, advanced materials and luxury goods to Russia.
The Donbas area covers much of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions and has seen conflict since 2014 between Ukrainian forces and Kremlin-backed rebels.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss condemned ‘horrific’ rocket attacks on civilians in eastern Ukraine as she announced the latest sanctions
Russia last week provoked further international outrage at its atrocities in Ukraine when more than 50 people died in a rocket attack in Kramatorsk, a city in the northern part of the Donetsk region.
Those killed included children as weaponry hit while thousands of people were waiting for evacuation trains.
Ms Truss said: ‘In the wake of horrific rocket attacks on civilians in eastern Ukraine, we are today sanctioning those who prop up the illegal breakaway regions and are complicit in atrocities against the Ukrainian people.
‘We will continue to target all those who aid and abet Putin’s war.
‘From tomorrow, we are banning the import of Russian iron and steel, as well as the export of quantum technologies and advanced materials that Putin sorely needs.
‘We will not rest in our mission to stop Putin’s war machine in its tracks.’
Government analysis shows Russia is heading for its deepest recession since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Around 60% of the country’s foreign currency reserves, worth £275bn, are currently frozen.
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