On Thursday, March 10, the U.K. government released a list of Russian oligarchs who have been sanctioned and the list includes Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich and his one time business partner Oleg Deripaska. The others, according to the press release, include Igor Sechin and people who are said to belong to Putin’s inner circle. Their collective worth is roughly £15 billion.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss announced a total asset freeze as well as a travel ban on 7 Russian oligarchs as their businesses and wealth is closely associated with the Kremlin. They will be banned from traveling to the U.K. and no citizen or company of the country may conduct business with them.

The 7 on the list include
Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea F.C., worth roughly £9 billion. He also has stakes in Evraz, a giant steel company and Norilsk Nickel.
Oleg Deripaska, worth roughly £2 billion, former partner of Abramovich, with stakes in En+ group.
Igor Sechin, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Rosneft.
Andrey Kostin, who is the chairman of VTB bank.
Alexei Miller, who is the CEO of Gazprom, a huge energy company based in Russia.
Nikolai Tokarev who is the president of Transneft, a company owned by Russia
Dmitri Lebedev who is the chairman of Bank Rossiya.

The U.K. government will enforce the Economic Crime Bill next week. This will let the government act further and faster to simplify the process of applying sanctions on individuals who are helping or have helped the Kremlin.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that there could be no “safe havens” for the people who supported Putin and that they would ruthlessly pursue those who enabled “the killing of civilians, the destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.

Nadine Dorries, who is the Culture Secretary, tweeted that Chelsea F.C. would be allowed to operate and it will be given a “special license.”

Opposition leader Keir Starmer, who is on a visit to Estonia where U.K. troops are based, said that they had called for the sanctions, weeks ago and that they needed to go “further and faster.”

Image

Image Wikimedia

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was the site of the world’s worst nuclear catastrophe nearly 36 years ago. It lost power after its power grid source was damaged, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Kuleba tweeted the plant was relying on reserve diesel generators with the capacity to power it for 48-hours, after which the cooling of spent nuclear fuel will halt, raising the possibility of “imminent” radiation leaks.

“Putin’s barbaric war puts entire Europe in danger. He must stop it immediately,” tweeted Kuleba, who also called on the global community to demand that Russia impose a cease-fire to allow for repairs.

The international community continued to target Russia’s economy. The European Union agreed Wednesday to bolster its sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion, including measures targeting senior Russian officials and oligarchs, as well as restrictions on the maritime sector and several Belarussian banks.

Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby added late Tuesday that the Pentagon did not “believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one.”

“The prospect of fighter jets ‘at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America’ departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance. It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it,” according to the statement from Kirby, adding that the United States would “continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistics.

The United Nations refugee agency said Wednesday more than 2.2 million people have fled Ukraine. More than half have gone to Poland.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were due to meet Thursday in Turkey to discuss the situation. Dmytro Kuleba said he will propose a direct meeting between Zelensky and Putin.

On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that Canada would stand with Europe as his country was talking similar steps to combat oil and gas issues. He spoke at a joint press conference with leaders whom he met including Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the U.K. as well as Dutch Prime Mark Rutte, on Monday. He is visiting Europe and meeting its leaders this week. He also met the Queen.

He mentioned that Europe and other countries had realized that Russia was no longer a partner on whom they could rely on for energy. He said that Vladimir Putin had broken “a trust.” He said that they would be there to support Europe as they along with other nations of the world moved “beyond Russian oil” as well “beyond fossil fuels” and added “more renewables” in their “mix.”

He also mentioned that it was important to move away from Russian fuels not only due to the impending crisis as the Ukraine-Russia conflict continued but also beyond it. He said that “Russia’s unreliability as a trading partner” should be remembered in the future as well.

As the invasion of Ukraine by Russia continues, Justin Trudeau announced sanctions against 10 new people who were prominent leaders close to Putin, on the same day. He said that the list was compiled by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in jail in Russia. Trudeau added that the sanctions had “put increased pressure on Russia’s leadership” and the sanctioned individuals included those who were in “Putin’s inner circle.”

On Tuesday, at a military base in Latvia, Trudeau said that he was extending the military mission of his country in the Baltics to help NATO allies deter additional military aggression from Russia. Canada’s involvement in Operation Reassurance was set to end next year, before he announced its extension.

Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that any attack on a NATO ally would be though it was an attack on all the NATO allies, when they were asked about the future; if Russia encroached on a country beyond Ukraine. Stoltenberg mentioned that the aim of additional military presence in countries who belong to the NATO alliance was to prevent further war.

Justin Trudeau also said, “NATO has never been more united and determined than we are now.”

(Photo: Art Babych)