Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced sanctions against five Russian banks and three Russian billionaires following troops entering two breakaway regions of Ukraine.
His statement named Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank as the banks facing sanctions.
The three individuals targeted are Boris Rotenburg, a rumoured childhood friend of Vladmir Putin, who possesses a net worth of US$1.2bn, his nephew Igor, worth US$1.1bn and Gennady Timchenko, the sixth richest man in Russia.
Their UK assets will be frozen, and they will be prevented from travelling into the UK, Johnson said in his speech in parliament today.
The PM added recent actions constituted a “renewed invasion”, and that the UK must “steel ourselves for a protracted crisis.”
He added that sanctions would be extended should the situation be escalated further.
However, four of the five banks were already sanctioned by the US.
All three individuals were also slapped with sanctions by America, with the Rotenburgs hit in 2014 and Timchencko following in 2018.
Conservation MP Tom Tugendhat said in parliament that “sanctions matter only if they make the Kremlin think again,” adding "these are a repetition of US sanctions. We need to do more if they’re to count.”
The European Union has published its own set of sanctions proposals that would target members of the Russian parliament and banks that are actively backing the Russian military.
Johnson’s announcement comes after Germany said it would suspend the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Russia.
President Joe Biden also signed an executive order that bans new investment, trade and financing by Americans in the breakaway regions, Luhansk and Donetsk.