UK targets separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine with sanctions

The UK is sanctioning 178 individuals who are deemed to be “propping-up the illegal breakaway regions” in eastern Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has announced.

The Foreign Office has long planned to focus on those behind the Russian-backed so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, and Ms Truss said the shelling of a railway station in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk had spurred the Government into action.

The sanctions are being co-ordinated with the European Union, the Foreign Office said.

Russia has refocused its military efforts in recent weeks as Russian president Vladimir Putin looks, according to Western intelligence, to mount an offensive on the Donbas region.

The Foreign Secretary said: “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.

“We will continue to target all those who aid and abet Putin’s war.”

Ms Truss also said that the latest package of punishing measures would include extending the import ban on Russian goods.

She added: “From tomorrow, we are banning the import of Russian iron and steel, as well as the export of quantum technologies and advanced materials that Putin sorely needs.

“We will not rest in our mission to stop Putin’s war machine in its tracks.”