Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters hit with US sanctions as UK announces more measures

Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters have been sanctioned by the US, as the UK announced a raft of further measures against Russia in a bid to stymie the invasion of Ukraine.

America said it was responding to “war crimes” in Ukraine by freezing the assets of some of Russia's most powerful people, including Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova.

Along with the president's daughters, the US said it was targeting Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's wife and children, as well as Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and prime minister.

Meanwhile, the UK government said it has imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest bank Sberbank and committed to end all imports of Russian coal and oil by the end of 2022.

Eight oligarchs involved in industries Putin uses to "uses to prop up his war economy" were also sanctioned, the Foreign Office said.

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It added that the measures were "delivered in lockstep with our global allies", with the EU also banning imports of Russian coal and the US sanctioning Sberbank.

President Joe Biden called the latest round of sanctions “devastating.”

“I made clear that Russia would pay a severe and immediate price for its atrocities in Bucha,” Mr Biden said in a tweet.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK had brought in "some of our toughest sanctions yet" in an attempt to "bring Putin's appalling war to an end".

"Our latest wave of measures will bring an end to the UK's imports of Russian energy and sanction yet more individuals and businesses, decimating Putin’s war machine.

"Together with our allies, we are showing the Russian elite that they cannot wash their hands of the atrocities committed on Putin's orders. We will not rest until Ukraine prevails."

The UK also announced an outright ban on all new outward investment to Russia, a move it said will present a "major hit to the Russian economy".

The eight sanctioned oligarchs - who've been banned from entering the UK and had their British assets frozen - are:

  • Viatcheslav (Moshe) Kantor - the largest shareholder of fertiliser company Acron with vital strategic significance for the Russian government

  • Andrey Guryev - known close associate of Vladimir Putin and founder of PhosAgro, a vital strategic company that produces fertilisers.

  • Sergey Kogogin - director of Kamaz, a manufacturer of trucks and buses, including for the Russian military.

  • Sergey Sergeyevich Ivanov - president of the world’s largest diamond producer Alrosa, which the UK also sanctioned.

  • Leonid Mikhelson - the founder, and CEO of leading Russian natural gas producer Novatek, with a net worth of £18 billion.

  • Andrey Akimov - the CEO of Russia’s third largest bank Gazprombank.

  • Aleksander Dyukov - the CEO of Russia’s third largest and majority state-owned oil producer GazpromNeft.

  • Boris Borisovich Rotenberg - son of the co-owner of Russia’s largest gas pipeline producer SGM. The Rotenberg family are known for their close connections to Putin and a number of them have already been sanctioned.