Ukraine: UK sanctions another 206 Russians in response to railway bombing
The UK has hit another 206 individuals with sanctions in response to an horrific attack on civilians trying to escape Russia’s invasion at a train station last week.
Foreign secretary Liz Truss said 178 of those sanctioned were key members of the Russian-backed Lugansk and Donetsk breakway states in the eastern Donbas region.
The train station attack took place in Kramatorsk and led to the death of 57 civilians.
“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,” Truss said.
“We will continue to target all those who aid and abet Putin’s war. We will not rest in our mission to stop Putin’s war machine in its tracks.”
Among those to be sanctioned is Lugansk People’s Republic leader Sergey Kozlov and former Donetsk People’s Republic leader Alexander Ananchenko.
Others to be sanctioned include Saodat Narzieva, a Putin oligarch and sister of former Arsenal part-owner Alisher Usmanov, and billionaire cigarette mogul Igor Kesaev.
The UK has now sanctioned more than 1,000 people, along with hundreds of firms, in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sanctions include freezing the assets of major Russian banks, shutting out businesses from Canada finance and curtailing trade in a series of areas.