Ukraine Crisis: UK Sanctions 5 Russian Banks, 3 Oligarchs

Over President Vladimir Putin's strong conduct on the Ukraine border, the UK government imposed harsh penalties on five Russian banks and three super-rich oligarchs on Tuesday.

This is the "first tranche" of actions, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the House of Commons, in response to Russian forces advancing into two rebel regions of Ukraine.

The sanctions include billionaires Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg, and Igor Rotenberg, as well as Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, Promsvyazbank, and the Black Sea Bank. For years, all three have been listed on the US sanctions list as Putin associates.

"Any assets they have in the UK will be frozen, the inpiduals involved will be barred from entering the country, and we will prohibit all UK persons and businesses from doing business with them," Johnson said in Parliament.

"This is the first tranche, the first barrage, of what we are prepared to do: we will retain additional sanctions in reserve, ready to deploy alongside the US and the EU if the situation worsens...we should brace ourselves for a long crisis."

"We will face this challenge side by side with our partners, resolute not to let Putin drag our continent back into a Hobbesian state of nature, where aggression pays and might is right," he said.

"And it is precisely because the stakes are so high that Putin's enterprise in Ukraine must fail, and be perceived to fail, in the end. This will necessitate the entire Western alliance's perseverance, solidarity, and resolution, and Britain will do everything necessary to guarantee that unity is preserved "Johnson went on to say.

The UK move comes after Russia recognised Donetsk and Luhansk, two breakaway regions of eastern Ukraine, as independent states, with troops coming in under the guise of "peacekeeping" responsibilities with Russian tanks and armoured personnel seen rolling in. This, according to Johnson, is a gross violation of the Minsk peace agreements, which amounts to a "renewal of that country's invasion."

"By denying Ukraine's validity as a state - and portraying its very existence as a fatal threat to Russia - Putin is laying the groundwork for a full-scale invasion," Johnson said in a statement to the House of Commons.

The measures were met with bipartisan support in Parliament, with many lawmakers asking for further sanctions against Putin. The UK's latest sanctions against Russia, according to Downing Street, are part of a "coordinated" approach to the Ukraine crisis with the US and EU.