The UK is to unleash a fresh wave of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s Russia as the Home Office announces a travel ban on oligarchs linked with the Kremlin.
It comes on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has led to tens of thousands of deaths.
Home Office minister Dan Jarvis has said that widening travel sanctions for Russian elites would “bolster our own UK national security”.
Speaking to Times Radio on Monday morning about the plan, the security minister said: “It will work by expanding the criteria for exclusion that sits with the Home Secretary.
“So this will mean that those Russian elites, those people who are close to Putin, those people who have been able to take resource from Russia, those people who are able to wield influence there, will now not be able to travel to the UK in the way that they have done previously.
“This will not only put further pressure on Russia, on the Russian elites and on Putin’s regime, but it will also bolster our own UK national security, because these are not people coming here to do good things.
“These measures will ensure that they’re not able to come here any longer in the way that they have for some time.”
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The plan “compliments” the Foreign Office’s existing sanctions on Russian individuals, Jarvis claimed. He also suggested that some 1,700 people affected by those sanctions would be in the remit of the ban.
Local and federal politicians as well as managers or directors of large Russian companies will face exclusion from the UK under the rules, which come on top of existing travel bans on high-profile business figures.
Reflecting on the new rules, foreign secretary David Lammy said it was time to “turn the screws” on Vladimir Putin’s Russia on Sunday.
Defence secretary John Healey added: “Keeping the Ukrainians in their fight and as strong as possible at any negotiating table is critical not only for them, but for the security of the UK.
“These new measures send a powerful message that we will do what it takes to turn the tables on Putin’s aggression.”
The new sanctions also comes as prime minister Keir Starmer is expected to join world leaders in a call hosted by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday.
The PM restated Britain’s “ironclad” backing for Kyiv in a series of conversations with allies over the weekend as he prepares to make the case for safeguards to protect the country’s sovereignty on his visit to the US later this week.
He is expected to address leaders from the G7 and across Europe as part of a group call in a show of solidarity amid fragile transatlantic relations.
Security minister Dan Jarvis has reiterated the government stance that Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in Nato, despite Donald Trump’s apparent opposition to the move, the security minister said on Monday morning.
The US president has said Ukraine joining the alliance is unlikely.
Asked if Nato membership for Ukraine was a realistic goal while Mr Trump was in the White House, Jarvis told Sky News: “The UK government is very clear that Ukraine is on an irreversible path to Nato membership.
“We think that Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato.”
He added: “It is not about overruling the US, it is about working closely with our partners in Nato to have these kind of conversations.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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