The UK has imposed sanctions against five Russian banks and three individuals. This was stated, speaking on Tuesday in Parliament, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson.

“We are imposing sanctions on three very high-profile individuals – Gennady Timchenko, Boris and Igor Rotenberg. Any assets they have in the UK will be frozen, they will be banned from entering here, and we will prohibit all British companies and individuals from doing business with them” Johnson said.

Johnson said that the following banks would be subject to British restrictions: Rossiya, Promsvyazbank, Joint Stock Company Commercial Bank Industrial Savings Bank, Genbank and the Black Sea Development Bank.

“This is the first portion [of sanctions], the first barrier that we are introducing. And we have additional sanctions ready that can be applied together with the US and the EU if the situation worsens further,” Johnson assured. The leader of the opposition Labor Party, Cyrus Starmer, who spoke after the prime minister, fully supported the imposition of sanctions. “Russia must be excluded from financial mechanisms such as SWIFT, and we must prohibit trading in Russian sovereign debt,” he said.

Johnson believes that there are Russian troops on the territory of the DPR and LPR and this is an “invasion”. “The Kremlin has said that Russian troops will enter the territory of the unrecognized republics under the guise of ‘peacekeepers’, and Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers have been seen since then. The House of Commons should have no doubt that the deployment of these forces on the territory of sovereign Ukraine is tantamount to a renewed invasion of that country” , – Johnson argued, speaking in Parliament.