Foreign Minister Liz Truss said the latest sanctions came in response to “horrific rocket attacks” on a train station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, that have killed dozens of civilians. “After the horrific rocket attacks on civilians in eastern Ukraine, we are now imposing sanctions on those who support the breakaway territories and are complicit in atrocities against the Ukrainian people,” he said. “We will continue to target all those who help and incite Putin’s war. “We will not rest on our laurels to stop Putin’s war machine in its tracks.” The sanctions are being coordinated with the EU, the Foreign Office said. Those affected by the new sanctions include Alexander Ananchenko and Sergey Kozlov, the self-proclaimed prime minister and prime minister of the self-proclaimed breakaway republics of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Other notable items added to the list include:
Vladimir Yakunin, the former head of the Russian Railways, whom the Foreign Office said had close ties to Putin. The United States has already imposed sanctions on Yakunin. Igor Kesaev, the founder of the Megapolis cigarette company, which according to the United Kingdom has a fortune of 2.9 billion pounds. Saodat Narzieva, “a pro-Kremlin oligarch with close ties to Putin,” and Alisher Usmanov’s sister. It was sanctioned by the EU last week.
Additional family members and staff of Russian oligarchs already facing sanctions have also been added to the list, including Pavel Ezubov, a cousin of Oleg Deripaska, and Nigina Zairova, Mikhail Fridman’s executive assistant. The United Kingdom has said it will ban imports of Russian iron and steel from Friday. Trash said Britain would also ban “the export of quantum technologies and advanced materials that Putin desperately needs.”
