LONDON — The U.K. will introduce sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov imminently, according to Downing Street.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson conveyed the message to NATO leaders during a call Friday afternoon, a spokeswoman for his office said, without providing details on the type of measures the government would take against the top officials of the Kremlin. The decision comes on top of the second package of sanctions announced Thursday by the U.K.
Johnson also urged Britain’s allies to shut Russia out of the SWIFT payments system immediately, and told NATO that Britain stood ready for any further request for military support to NATO countries.
“The prime minister told the group that a catastrophe was engulfing Ukraine, and President Putin was engaging in a revanchist mission to overturn post-Cold War order. He warned the group that the Russian president’s ambitions might not stop there and that this was a Euro-Atlantic crisis with global consequences,” the spokeswoman said.
The EU will freeze the assets of Putin and Lavrov as part of a sanctions package, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell confirmed Friday.
Jacopo Barigazzi contributed reporting.