The United Kingdom announced, on Wednesday, the expansion of the list of persons subject to sanctions, in coordination with the European Union, to include 178 pro-Russian separatists, as well as the new oligarchs and their relatives, according to a press release issued by the Foreign Office.
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“The British government, in coordination with the European Union, is imposing sanctions on 178 people who support illegal separatist areas of Ukraine,” following “numerous reports last week that Russia is brutally targeting civilians in these areas,” the executive announced.
Among those particularly sanctioned were Alexander Ananchenko and Sergey Kozlov, who were described by London as “self-proclaimed” leaders of the pro-Russian separatist “republics” of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Besides the separatists, the sanctions also target Maria Lavrova, wife of Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov, deputy and wealthy Ukrainian businessman Viktor Medvedchuk, a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin whose arrest Kyiv announced on Tuesday.
The list also includes Vagoit Alekperov, head of the second place in the Russian oil sector, Lukoil, and Vladimir Yevtushnikov, owner of the Sistema Group.
The executive determines that the new sanctions, in particular asset freezes and travel bans, concern a total of 206 people, including 178 separatists, but also “six oligarchs, close collaborators and employees, and an additional 22 individuals through urgent action.”
“Following the horrific missile attacks targeting civilians in eastern Ukraine, we are today punishing those who support illegal separatist regions and are guilty of atrocities against the Ukrainian people,” Britain’s chief diplomat Liz Truss said in a press release.
London also announced its intention to submit a text to Parliament on Thursday banning the import of “steel products as well as the export of quantum technologies, advanced materials and luxury goods” from Russia.
London says that, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, it has imposed sanctions on more than 1,400 people and companies linked to the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, including more than 100 oligarchs, as well as 400 institutions and their subsidiaries, including 18 banks.
