Our unprecedented package of sanctions will leave no corner of his regime unscathed.
Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine exposes Vladimir Putin’s regime for what it is: mendacious, bellicose and calculating. His Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, told me directly that Russia would not invade. Last week, they claimed to be pulling back their forces. They have lied to the world and their own people again and again. This is not just an assault on the innocent people of Ukraine, their sovereignty and their future. It is also an attack on the security and freedom of Europe.
With so much at stake, the United Kingdom is leading the charge to rally international support for Ukraine and to respond alongside our allies with strength. That’s why we have been at the forefront in supplying defensive weapons and economic support to Ukraine. We have also been consistent in calling out Russian disinformation and the false flag operations aimed at creating a pretext for invasion.
This week, I summoned the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Office, where I made clear that he should be ashamed and Russia had lost its last shred of credibility within the international community. Shortly, I will embark on a round of shuttle diplomacy across Europe and the United States to galvanise a united, decisive and determined response to this aggression.
The UK is proud to lead by example. We warned repeatedly alongside our allies that any further invasion would incur massive consequences with severe costs. We have been working in lockstep to show Moscow that we mean what we say. Our unprecedented package of economic sanctions will leave no part of the Putin regime unscathed. We are hitting more than a hundred companies and oligarchs at the heart of the Russian establishment with sanctions worth many hundreds of billions of pounds.
Our targets range from Russia’s largest defence company and its second biggest bank to leading members of President Putin’s inner circle. This will deliver the highest economic cost the Kremlin has ever seen.
We are freezing Russian banks’ assets in the UK, and preventing Russian companies from raising finance in our markets. We will prevent Russia from raising sovereign debt in the UK.
By closing these major financial lifelines worth billions of pounds, we will cripple Russia’s economic development in both the short and long term. And we are working with our allies to maximise the pressure through measures like excluding Russia from using the SWIFT financial system.
We will substantially strengthen trade restrictions – including our toughest export controls against Russia – to hammer its electronics, telecoms and aerospace industries. In this way, we will degrade Russia’s military development for years to come, blunting the potential growth of Putin’s war machine. We are also banning Russia’s flagship airline, Aeroflot, from our airspace.
We are sanctioning more of the Russian elite, including President Putin’s former son-in-law Kirill Shamalov as well as the heads of major Russian missile suppliers and aircraft manufacturers. They will be unable to travel to the UK and any assets based here will be frozen. We will also be sanctioning the Belarus regime for their craven role in aiding and abetting Russia’s actions.
The Kremlin is leading the Russian people into a quagmire and turning Russia into a global pariah. This is the moment to take a hard-headed approach, which means being ready to accept short-term pain for long-term gain – in the knowledge that the pain felt by Putin will be exponentially higher. German Chancellor Scholz has recognised how vital this is by suspending Nord Stream 2, as Europe moves to cut its dependence on Russian gas.
With Ukraine’s future in peril, we must unite in putting a stop to President Putin’s aggressive ambitions. He is hell-bent on realising his dream of recreating a Greater Russia with swathes of Europe in his sphere of influence.
That is why he also tries to needle other free democracies on Russia’s doorstep. He made that clear in his fact-free diatribes this week, smearing our allies in Eastern Europe with the false accusation that they moved “against Russia” by joining Nato – which is a purely defensive alliance.
We know Russia is willing to build an invasion on lies, so it could not be more important to stay vigilant. We have set up a new government Information Cell dedicated to rebutting the Kremlin’s fake narratives designed to justify the unjustifiable.
At this defining moment, we stand with Ukraine, its people and its democracy and will continue to support them economically, politically and defensively. I saw their courage and fortitude on my visit to Kyiv last week.
They have risked their lives to choose freedom and are ready to do so again. We cannot – and will not – rest until the Russian economy pays the price and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are restored.
Britain, under that clown Boris Johnson, is all words but absolutely NO action. That clown is under so much pressure, even from his own ranks, to save his Premiership that he has absolutely no time to concentrate on anything else that actually matters.
Tough guys are mad Men. Their supporters are just as dumb as they are. Too dumb to see that they’re being played so that tough guy can get more and more power. There will never be enough power. It’s insatiable. In the end they overdose on power.
I know just what you mean. It’s no wonder Germany, France, USA, Spain, Britain, Italy, none of these you described want to get out of Africa and Haiti. Putin did it like the U.S did Iraq, not realizing he could destabilize like they threatened Mandela if he persued LAND REFORM, and use locals to overthrow so it will have the semblance the locals did it themselves.
Wyt people aggression being met with other wyt people aggression. There have been 6 coups in West Africa in very recent times, all perps allegedly trained by U.S and/or France. It seems Russia just doesn’t know or try to do these covertly as their other brothers.
This is one Goliath who will crush any Davis. While I must be sympathetic with Ukraine, I also have to admit that the alliance is getting a taste of their own medicine. Panama, Iraq, and Libya are among notable examples for reference.
I have no idea what Mr. Eagle is saying. Ukraine got a signed commitment in 1994 to ensure its security. Russia was a signatory to this treaty.Bill Clinton and others made Ukraine give it’s nuclear weapons to Russia to destroy. At the same time, told Ukraine we will protect you from Russia. Russia promised never to invade Ukraine.
Yet in 2014 under Obama, Russia broke the promise, invade Ukraine and took Crimea.
The president begged Obama and Biden to sell him javelins, to protect them from Russian aggression. He and Biden refused but gave blankets instead. Later on Obama send Biden to Ukraine with one billion dollars. Biden told the leader before you get this money, you must fire the prosecutor who is investigating an oil company for corruption.Just to learn later, his son Hunter was a board member and getting thousands of $.
What I just said, you can Google it and hear him boasting, while addressing Con. on Foreign Relations.
Russia was under no fret.
Well Channel 1 aka JJ, let them dook it out, Bush, Biden, Obama, Trump all implicit. You not gonna win a Democrats/Republicans election that you lost by regurgitating your Qanon narrative over this war too. What’s your beef, didn’t you-all “invade” the U.S white house and again lost like the Civil War? Are you going against your Jesus Pat Robertson who has claimed Putin is doing God’s work, the god of racists and bigots?
Eagle-Eyed i don’t know which side of the equation you are on what i do know it’s not history. It certainly would have served you better had you done some research before publishing your article. i would like to refer you to Wikipedia; caption : Nuclear Weapons and Ukraine, the paragraph Budapest should enlighten you as to what is unfolding on the ground in Ukraine at this moment in history. Your mention of “Russian security concerns” is without merit. Tell me who is threatening who, Russia (the country with the largest Nuclear Arsenal in the entire universe). I blame NATO for not accepting Ukraine into it’s membership a long time ago, and the USA/CIA for the discontinuance of removing bullies and despots around the globe. Subject to correction there was peace and tranquility, although one may disagree with the concepts which were used at the time.
You can’t rely solely on Wikipedia, all Dog and cat update the wiki. It should only be used as a starting point for your research.
Boris Johnson and his foreign secretary are all bluster and no substance. They could have sorted this thing out diplomatically without it culminating into the current situation, if they had seriously engaged the Russians to address their security concerns. Instead they arrogantly dismissed the Russians as if their concerns did not matter. The move by Putin to enter into Ukraine is strategic in terms of putting them in a position of strength for future negations on Ukraine and NATO. With the Russians now in Ukraine, in order to get them out, they will either have to have a full blown war with the threat of nuclear weapons or negotiate with the Russians on how to best address their security concerns.