British authorities on Thursday imposed a new package of sanctions against 65 Russian individuals and entities, including the Russian paramilitary company Wagner Group , considered to be the private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The UK Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, has indicated that these new sanctions target “strategic industries, banks and economic elites”, as well as vital companies such as the state railway company and the main producer of drones in the country.

Among those sanctioned are oligarchs such as Herman Gref, head of Sberbank, oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, and Tinkoff bank founder Oleg Tinko , as well as Alfa bank and the Alrosa company, the world’s leading diamond producer. “All those sanctioned will have their assets frozen in the UK, which means that no UK citizen or company can do business with them,” Truss said.

“People subject to travel bans will also be prohibited from traveling to or from the UK,” he said before clarifying that the measures “will raise the total value of global assets of banks that the UK has sanctioned since the invasion to 500,000 million of pounds (about 600,400 million euros)”.

All of them have been accused of being “accomplices in the murder of innocent civilians” in Ukraine, for which Truss has clarified that it is “fair” that they “pay a price” for it.

Hours earlier, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged the international community to “rise up”. “We have to increase our support, increase the economic siege around Putin, sanction more people. Today we are sanctioning the Wagner Group,” he told the media from Brussels, where he is visiting to attend the NATO summit.

Thus, he has indicated that Putin “has the determination to redouble his efforts within the framework of the aggression” and has described as “brutal” the way in which “he is treating the Ukrainian people”, according to information from the newspaper ‘The Guardian’.

In this sense, he has stated that the allies must “unite” and “rise up” in support of Ukraine. “We have to do everything in our power to stop Putin from using his gold reserves,” he said.

Johnson has accused Putin of crossing “the red line” and has stressed that “now the whole world knows that Ukraine will fight for its country.” “They believe in him, they love his country and they will defend him,” he added. “This has changed geopolitics”, he has stated in relation to the Russian invasion of the territory.

For the British ‘premier’, there is a “need to help them”. “We have to help them protect themselves and their loved ones. We have sent 4,000 anti-tank weapons and we are going to send many more,” he said.

“I think he has already passed a point of barbarism by the way he is behaving. People talk about chemical, biological or nuclear red lines… But I think the red lines have already been crossed. He is bombing indiscriminately civilian areas,” he said.

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