Russia has hit 18 British citizens with sanctions over their alleged role in supporting Ukraine and demonising Russia.
Russia has announced sanctions on 18 British citizens, including officials, academics and Russia experts, for what it claims is an effort to vilify Russia and worsen the war in Ukraine.
“British representatives with a Russophobic bias do not hesitate to try to undermine the constitutional system and socio-political processes in our country,” Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, said on Monday.
“The so-called brain trusts based on the largest British and Western educational institutions play a significant role in the subversive activities of London against Russia.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry also said the United Kingdom’s approach to Ukraine has resulted in more violence and casualties in the war.
“The British should understand that they share the blame for crimes against civilians with the Ukrainian neo-Nazis, by encouraging the [President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy regime to keep up the bloodshed,” the ministry said.
The sanctions affected British Deputy Defence Minister James Cartlidge, Deputy National Security Adviser Sarah MacIntosh and Director of Submarines Simon Asquith, among others.
Also targeted were Stuart Peach, the British prime minister’s special envoy to the Western Balkans, and Lords Dan Hannan and Michael Ashcroft.
The academics sanctioned included historians Orlando Figes, Norman Davies, Timothy Garton Ash, Rob Johnson, David Abulafia and experts such as Roy Allison of the University of Oxford, Graeme Robertson of the University of North Carolina, Calder Walton of Harvard University and James Sherr of the International Centre for Defence & Security in Tallinn.
The British government did not comment immediately.
The UK has been supporting Ukraine with military and financial assistance since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. In January, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the country will raise its military aid to Ukraine in the next fiscal year to 2.5 billion pounds ($3.15bn), a rise of 200 million pounds ($252m) from the previous two years.
Sunak and Zelenskyy also signed a security deal that the Ukrainian leader said would last until Kyiv joined the NATO military alliance.
