Keir Starmer is expected to announce the fresh package of sanctions as he appears at the G7 summit in Canada to ratchet up pressure on the Russian leader
Vladimir Putin’s war machine is set to be hit by new sanctions to squeeze the Kremlin’s funds.
Keir Starmer is expected to announce the fresh package as he appears at the G7 summit in Canada to ratchet up pressure on the Russian leader.
Alongside other world leaders, the PM will launch the action to “hit Putin where it hurts” until he commits to a ceasefire, Downing Street said. The PM will tell the G7 summit: “The fact is – Russia doesn’t hold all the cards. So, we should take this moment to increase economic pressure and show President Putin it is in his – and Russia’s interests – to demonstrate he is serious about peace.”
He will add: “We are finalising a further sanctions package – and I want to work with all of our G7 partners to squeeze Russia’s energy revenues and reduce the funds they are able to pour into their illegal war.”
Ukraine’s war-time leader President Volodmyr Zelensky is expected to attend the summit. No10 said existing sanctions, including on ships and over 2,300 individuals in Russia, have already deprived the Kremlin of at least $450bn since February 2022.
They added major Russian companies including Rostec, Rosatom, Gazprom and Rosneft are facing significant challenges as a result. Last month the government announced fresh sanctions on Putin’s war machine, including energy exports and financial institutions.
It came in response to Russia firing 273 drones at Ukrainian cities, including on a bus in Sumy, which killed nine civilians. The summit in Kananaskis, Canada, is being attended by the US President Donald Trump, France’s Emmanuel Macron, and the Canadian PM Mark Carney.
On Monday Mr Trump also said it had been a “mistake” to kick Russia out of the G7.
Moscow was expelled from the group, which was formally called the G8, back in 2014 following its illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea. In his first public appearance at the summit in Canada on Monday alongside Mark Carney the US President moaned the G7 “used to be the G8”.
He said: “ Barack Obama and a person named [Justin] Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in, and I would say that that was a mistake, because I think you wouldn’t have a war right now if you had Russia in. And you wouldn’t have a war right now if Trump were President four years ago. But it didn’t work out that way.”
He added: “It used to be the G8 and now it’s, I guess, what’s that? Nine years ago, eight years ago, it switched over there. They threw Russia out, which I claimed was a very big mistake, even though I wasn’t in politics then. I was very loud about it. You spend so much time talking about Russia and he’s not even at the table so it makes life more complicated.”
But he later added he was not saying the Russian warmonger Putin should be at the meeting. “Too much water has gone over the dam,” he added. “But it was a big mistake.” Asked by a reporter if China should also be added, Trump said: “It’s not a bad idea. I don’t mind that if somebody wants to see just China coming in.
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