London, 22 Feb. 2022 – Following yesterday’s decision of Putin to reckon Ukraine’s separatist Donetsk and Lugansk, Britain is going to “sanction Russian individuals and entities of strategic importance to the Kremlin” announced today PM Boris Johnson at the House of Commons.

Five Russian Banks are targeted: Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank, as first tranche as “we hope further sanctions at readiness to be deployed alongside the United States and the European Union if the situation escalates further”, Johnson said.

Also three very “high net worth individuals” are now targeted with sanctions: Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, Igor Rotenberg.

Labour leader Keir Starmer and Lib Dems Ed Davey ensured opposition support to the government on sanctions, but went further in specifying what is actually needed to actually hit Putin’s regime: “Russia should be excluded from financial mechanism by swift, said Labour leader – we should ban trading in Russian sovereign debt, Putin’s campaign of misinformation should be tackled Russia Today should be prevented from broadcasting its propaganda around the world”.

The Tory ultraconservative government is being strongly criticised by opposition lawmakers and the wider public who question a party that has taken huge donations from wealthy Russian oligarchs and now is imposing weak sanctions not proportionate to Putin’s aggression and to the future international threats.

British government is not excluding sending ‘military support’ to Ukraine: “No NATO country is considering now sending combat troops to Ukraine but that not preclude support by NATO countries for Ukraine included military support”, said the PM answering to former under Secretary of Defense, Tobias Ellwood, who said sanctions alone would not be enough and that in relation with NATO “we must now consider how we should utilise our “formidable hard power deterrence in responding to Ukraine’s call for further help, not excluding the potential for a no-fly zone”.

After Putin signed on Monday decrees recognising sovereignty of the pro-Russia separatist self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donets and Lugansk, violating not only Minsk agreements but widely the international law, EU announced its “united front” as risk of war heightens”

“We will send a mission of experts to help Ukraine to face cyber attacks” said EU diplomacy chief Josep Borrell Frontell after EU Foreign Affairs Council, while calling Putin “to respect int. law & Minsk agreement and we expect him not to recognize independence of Donetsk and Luhansk”.

“We will send a mission of experts to help Ukraine to face cyber attacks” Borrell added after EU Foreign Affairs Council held on Monday.

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