THE UK's Foreign Secretary has announced a fresh wave of sanctions against Russian elites and institutions, while vowing to ban coal imports by the end of the year.
Liz Truss revealed the measures this afternoon, minutes after the US announced it was sanctioning the country's largest bank - Sberbank - as well as Vladimir Putin's two daughters Maria Ivanovna Putina and Katerina Tikhonovna Shkrebneva.
Joe Biden said the US measures would be "devastating" and would ensure "Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in Bucha".
The UK Foreign Office announced it was to end the UK's dependency on Russian coal and oil by the end of the year, and vowed to end gas imports from the country "as soon as possible thereafter".
Asset freezes against Sberbank and the Credit Bank of Moscow were also unveiled by Ms Truss, as as well as an outright ban on investment to Russia, worth more than £11bn to the country in 2020.
Eight wealthy oligarchs have been targeted by the UK Government, including Sergey Sergeyevich Ivanov, president of the world's largest diamond producer Alrosa; and Boris Borisovich Rotenberg, the son of the co-owner of Russia’s largest gas pipeline producer SGM.
Also beng sanctioned are Viatcheslav Kantor, the largest shareholder of fertiliser company Acron, Putin associate Andrey Guryev, truck manufacturer Sergey Kogogin, Gaxprombank CEO Andrey Akimov, gas producer Leonid Mikhelson, and Aleksander Dyukov, who runs the state-owned oil firm GazpromNeft.
Ms Truss said: "Today, we are stepping up our campaign to bring Putin's appalling war to an end with some of our toughest sanctions yet."
"Our latest wave of measures will bring an end to the UK's imports of Russian energy and sanction yet more individuals and businesses, decimating Putin’s war machine.
"Together with our allies, we are showing the Russian elite that they cannot wash their hands of the atrocities committed on Putin's orders. We will not rest until Ukraine prevails."
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