British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Tuesday that the United Kingdom is imposing sanctions on five Russian banks: Rossiya Bank, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank, and Black Sea Bank as well as three "very high net worth individuals:" Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg. "This is the first barrage of what we are prepared to do, and we hold further sanctions at readiness to be deployed... if the situation escalates still further," he stated.
Johnson said the presence of Russian tanks and personnel in Ukraine amounts to a "renewed invasion" and warned Ukraine risks being drawn into a war "without a shred of justification." He said Western allies must face the possibility that reaching a peaceful solution "through patient diplomacy may be in vain," claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin "is implacably determined to go further in subjugating and tormenting Ukraine."
