Britain hits Putin’s war chest: 31 new sanctions on shadow fleet, propagandists and torturers
The Foreign Office announced asset freezes and travel bans on 23 individuals and entities and trade sanctions on eight ships, in one of the largest single-day sanctions packages of the war.
Britain announced on Thursday one of the largest single-day sanctions packages of the war, with 31 new measures aimed at stemming funding for Vladimir Putin’s war chest, disrupting Kremlin disinformation networks and punishing those responsible for torturing Ukrainian civilians and deporting Ukrainian children.
Some 23 individuals and entities will be subject to asset freezes and travel bans, while eight ships linked to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet face trade sanctions. The Government said it has now sanctioned more than 3,400 individuals, entities and ships since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The sanctioned vessels include three alleged shadow-fleet ships, two vessels providing them with bunkering services and three Russian-owned ice-class ships. The Foreign Office said Russia was trying to circumvent sanctions on ships by using different vessels, and the new sanctions target ships acquired as recently as July, including liquefied natural gas carriers. The UK said it has now sanctioned nearly 600 tankers linked to efforts to move Russian energy outside Western restrictions.
We are targeting both the revenues that help sustain Russia’s aggression and perpetrators of horrendous crimes against Ukrainian civilians, including children.Lord Wood of Anfield, Minister for Europe
The package follows the sham elections Russia held in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories earlier this month. Eight people are being sanctioned for their involvement in the arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian civilians, which the Foreign Office described as part of a wider system of repression in the occupied territories.
A further seven people are targeted for their role in the indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children, including those deported by the Russian authorities. The Foreign Office said about 6,000 Ukrainian children to date had been placed in what it called “heinuous” camps established for “re-education”, and that millions more under occupation are subjected to propaganda programmes, including training in weapons handling and drone operation, designed to strip children of their Ukrainian identity.
The disinformation strand of the package targets people accused of spreading pro-Kremlin narratives, including four Georgian nationals. Among those named is Mamuka Pipia, the leader of the pro-Russian Georgian party Solidarity for Peace.
“We are targeting both the revenues that help sustain Russia’s aggression and perpetrators of horrendous crimes against Ukrainian civilians, including children,” said the Minister for Europe, Lord Wood of Anfield. The Foreign Office said the measures were timed to maintain pressure on Moscow ahead of winter, noting that Russia fired more than 3,100 jet-powered drones into Ukraine in September, outstripping its wartime record from August.
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