How the UK's new sanctions will work: British minister explains

Last month UK 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.

Read more int the column by Dan Jarvis, UK Security Minister – London takes a stand against Putin's allies: British minister on new sanctions regime.

The author points out that 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," he explains.

According to him, the British government 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", Jarvis writes.

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," the minister underlines.

He adds that 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.