UK announces new sanctions in response to Russian sham elections in Ukraine
More Russian officials involved in the illegal invasion of Ukraine are hit with new sanctions, including movement and financial restrictions, announced by British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly today.
That’s according to the UK government press service, Ukrinform reports.
“Russia’s sham elections are a transparent, futile attempt to legitimise its illegal control of sovereign Ukrainian territory. You can’t hold ‘elections’ in someone else’s country,” Cleverly said. “The UK will never recognise Russia’s claims to Ukrainian territory - Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson are Ukraine.”
Eleven new designations will be imposed by the UK. Among those designated are an organization and senior Russian officials, who have all directly acted to undermine Ukraine and threaten its territorial integrity.
They include:
The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Russia, the government agency that has arranged this month’s sham elections and last year’s referendums in illegally temporarily controlled parts of Ukraine.
Natalya Budarina, CEC Secretary, one of the most senior officials in the Central Election Commission.
Andrei Aleksyenko, Head of the so-called Kherson regional administration.
Marina Zakharova, Head of the so-called election commission in Kherson.
“Today’s announcement comes one year on from Russia’s illegal attempt to annex the Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk after falsified and illegitimate sham referendums. Conducted on sovereign Ukrainian territory, through intimidation at gunpoint, these referendums were overwhelmingly rejected by the UN General Assembly in October 2022,” the UK government reported.
In the latest futile attempt to normalise Russia’s illegitimate control of sovereign Ukrainian territory, Russia arranged illegal sham “elections” earlier this month. These elections are another violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and of the UN Charter.
Memo:
The UK alone has sanctioned over 1,800 individuals and entities under its Russia sanctions regime, over 1,600 of which were sanctioned since Putin’s full-scale invasion. This includes 29 banks, accounting for over 90% of the Russian banking sector, and 129 oligarchs who had a combined net worth around £145 billion at the time of the invasion. Over £20 billion of UK-Russia bilateral trade (2021 figures) is now under full or partial sanction and there has been a 98.2% fall in Russian imports into the UK, and a 77.4% fall in UK exports to Russia.