London, Thanasis Gavos
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson has stated that his government will immediately impose an economic package sanctions against Russiawhile assessing that President Putin is preparing for full invasion of Ukraine.
Statements following the COBRA meeting on Downing Street to coordinate Britain’s response to the recognition of Donbass independence from Moscow, Mr Johnson initially said the Russian leader had violated international law and Ukrainian sovereignty, while also essentially denouncing the Minsk process.
“International law has been completely torn apart,” Johnson said, adding that Vladimir Putin “is determined to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” which he described as “absolutely catastrophic.”
He added that Britain would now impose an “immediate package of international sanctions” that would include certain interests in Russia. “We will target Russian economic interests as hard as we can,” Johnson said, as well as “financial interests that support the Russian war machine.” However, he referred to the details in the announcements that will be made later in the House of Commons.
However, he hinted that the sanctions that will be announced today will not be the full package, as stricter measures will be imposed if there is a full invasion. “Do not doubt that if Russian companies are prevented from raising capital in the British financial markets, if we peel off the face of Russian corporate and property ownership, it will start to hurt,” he added.
He also said it was vital that Putin’s attempt to conquer another European country failed, and stressed that the Russian president’s plan was a “serious miscalculation.”
He said President Putin “believes that Ukraine has no real right to exist as a sovereign, independent country”, which “contradicts everything we have tried to achieve at the end of the Cold War”.
He estimated that the Russian President will encounter something that will be difficult to defeat, namely the Ukrainian sense of national pride and the determination of its people to defend their country.
Shortly afterwards, US Secretary of Defense Ben Wallace called the situation “incredibly serious” and said that in essence, Ukraine, a sovereign state, has been “annexed” by another country.
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