Britain hits five banks and three wealthy Russians with sanctions over Ukraine

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Tolga Akmen/PA)

Britain will hit five Russian banks and three wealthy individuals with sanctions, Boris Johnson announced under a “first barrage” of punitive measures ahead of a feared full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The British Prime Minister described on Tuesday the troops being sent by Vladimir Putin into the Donbas region under the guise of being “peacekeepers” as a “renewed invasion” of Ukraine.

He said the Russian President is “establishing the pretext for a full-scale offensive” as he warned this could include the capture of the capitol Kyiv by the nearly 200,000 troops amassed on Ukraine’s borders.

Mr Johnson told the Commons immediate sanctions would be deployed against the Russian banks Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank, as well as three “very high net wealth individuals”.

“Any assets they hold in the UK will be frozen, the individuals concerned will be banned from travelling here and we will prohibit all UK individuals and entities from having any dealings with them,” he told MPs.

“This the first tranche, the first barrage, of what we are prepared to do and we hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed.”