London takes a stand against Putin's allies: British minister on new sanctions regime
It has been three long years since those first shocking pictures emerged in global media of Russian tanks rolling over the border in Ukraine in February 2022.
I can only imagine the sense of horror that you felt here in Ukraine.
The subsequent fighting has had a devastating impact. The destruction, the loss of life on a vast scale, the displacement of millions.
Russia’s aggression sent and continues to send shockwaves around the world.
But amid the horror and condemnation, it was the unending spirit of the Ukrainian people that took Putin most by surprise.
So did the support and solidarity that the world showed your country, led from the front by your inspiring President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As the Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this month, "President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people have shown the most extraordinary resilience and made such great sacrifices in the defence of their nation".
Across our entire nation, the UK along with our international partners stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ukrainian people.
And, at the outbreak of war, people around the UK opened up their homes to Ukrainians who had lost everything to this unjustified war.
The world came together to place huge sanctions on the Russian economy, isolating Vladimir Putin and his cronies from much of the rest of the world. All of this as a steadfast show of support for the Ukrainian people.
And now, we are focussed on putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position to secure a just and lasting peace.
In the UK, we are determined to continue strengthening the relationship between our two countries.
Last month our Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited Kyiv to sign, alongside President Zelenskyy, an historic 100-year partnership agreement to further strengthen military, economic and cultural ties with Ukraine.
As part of that agreement, we pledged to work together to tackle the malign influence of elites linked to the Russian State.
These are the people who pose a real and present danger to our way of life, both in the UK and in Ukraine.
They denounce our values in public but seek to enjoy the benefits of the UK in private. The benefits which they look to deprive Ukraine from through their support of Russia’s war on your country.
Russia poses acute and, in your case, existential, national security threats to our countries.
We cannot allow elites propping up the Kremlin regime to exercise double standards.
We began to correct this with extensive sanctions on key oligarchs to increase pressure on the Kremlin to end its destabilising behaviour towards Ukraine, as well as introducing necessary legislative changes.
From today, I am proud to say that we are going further than ever on that pledge.
We are expanding the Home Office’s exclusion policy to ensure that the senior and influential individuals linked to the Russian State can be stopped from entering the UK while Russia remains an acute national security threat to the UK.
This means that we will have the power to exclude anyone who provides significant support to the Russian State, owes their significant status or wealth to the Russian State, or has access to the highest levels of the Russian State.
These new measures are based on the national security threat to the UK which elites can pose and will be judged on a case-by-case basis. They will complement the UK’s extensive sanctions regime, which will remain in place as long as the Kremlin threatens Ukraine’s sovereignty.
We will never again allow our country to become a haven for those who enable or profit from the Kremlin regime.
The UK will defend itself from the threat Russia poses us at home and we will stand with you in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin’s friends in Moscow are not welcome in the UK.
Our message to you, the Ukrainian people, is clear – we are with you today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.
Slava Ukraini.
Columns in the Expert Opinion section are not editorial articles and solely reflect the author's views