Parliament House, London, UKLONDON, Mar 1As part of the sanctions against the Russian Federation, the UK authorities are receiving new powers to detain Russian ships, the British Ministry of Transport reports. Earlier on Tuesday, the UK passed a law providing for a complete ban on ships with any connection to Russia from entering British ports. The measure applies to Russian-flagged ships registered, owned, controlled, chartered or operated by Russia. «As of today, I am instructing all UK ports to refuse any vessel that is Russian flagged, registered, owned or operated by Russia,» Transport Minister Grant Shapps was quoted as saying.
Not a step back — on all three fronts Earlier, Britain, in connection with the recognition of the independence of the LPR and the DPR, imposed sanctions against a number of Russian banks, as well as against businessmen Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg. Then London imposed sanctions in connection with a special operation in the Donbass against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and heads of a number of companies. Rostec, the Tactical Missiles Corporation, Uralvagonzavod, UAC and USC were also on the sanctions list. In addition, the British authorities decided to completely freeze VTB's assets, stop Russian companies from accessing loans in the UK market, ban the export of a number of high-tech and critical technical equipment and components, ban Aeroflot flights from and to Russia, and set a limit on bank accounts of Russians at the level of 50 thousand pounds (66.8 thousand dollars). On Monday, Britain extended banking sanctions on Sberbank, VEB, Otkritie and Sovcombank. Russia launched a military operation to demilitarize Ukraine early on February 24. In a televised address to the Russians, President Vladimir Putin said that circumstances «require decisive and immediate action from us, the people's republics of Donbass have asked for help.» According to the Russian leader, all responsibility for the bloodshed will be on the conscience of the ruling regime in Ukraine. He urged the Ukrainian military not to carry out the criminal orders of the Ukrainian authorities, to lay down their arms and go home. Later, the Russian Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Armed Forces do not inflict any strikes on the cities of Ukraine: military infrastructure is disabled by high-precision means. The civilian population, according to the department, is not in danger. The Ministry of Defense added that the Ukrainian border guards «do not offer any resistance», in some cases the Ukrainian military surrender and then have the opportunity to return to their families. The West has opened a second front against Russia. Economic
