War in Ukraine: Separatist leaders targeted in new UK sanctions

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the UK is sanctioning those who "prop up the illegal breakaway regions" in eastern Ukraine

The self-styled leaders of Ukraine's breakaway regions are among those being targeted by new UK sanctions.

Individuals sanctioned include Sergei Kozlov and Alexander Ananchenko, from the self-declared People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has recently pulled troops away from Kyiv and shifted most of the focus of its war to eastern Ukraine.

Last week scores of people were killed in a missile strike on a train station in the eastern city of Kramatorsk.

The measures are being co-ordinated with the EU, the Foreign Office said.

Announcing the latest sanctions, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said after the "horrific rocket attacks on civilians" the UK was sanctioning those who "prop up the illegal breakaway regions" and were "complicit in atrocities" against Ukrainians.

She vowed ministers would continue to target all those who "aid and abet" Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion.

More than 50 people, including children, were killed and many more were injured in Friday's train station attack.

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Ukrainian officials say thousands of people were waiting for evacuation trains to escape heavy Russian shelling across the wider Donetsk region.

The country's president Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Russia for the attack, but Moscow denied carrying it out.

Russia is building up troops and military equipment along Ukraine's eastern border ahead of an expected offensive in the Donbas - which broadly refers to the Russian-backed separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The latest UK sanctions announced on Wednesday target 206 people, including 178 separatists, six oligarchs, their close associates and employees, as well as an additional 22 individuals.

Maria Lavrova, the wife of Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, is among those subject to a travel ban and asset freeze.

Further family members of Russian oligarchs have also been targeted, including Pavel Ezubov, cousin of Oleg Deripaska, and Nigina Zairova, the executive assistant to Mikhail Fridman.

The Foreign Office said since Russia's invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the UK had sanctioned more than 1,400 individuals and businesses - including more than 100 oligarchs and family members.

The department added that secondary legislation would be also laid in Parliament on Thursday banning the import of Russian steel and iron products and the export of luxury goods.