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LONDON — Rishi Sunak today warned Russia must “pay the price” for its war in Ukraine as he announced new sanctions on the country’s metals, financial and energy sectors.
Russian exports of metals like copper, aluminum and nickel will be restricted under the new sanctions as they are “an important revenue stream funding the Kremlin’s war machine,” the U.K. Foreign Office said.
Energy companies like UMATEX and TRINITI, which produce research and infrastructure that may be used to build Russia’s military capabilities, five banks and a series of executives linked to the defense industry will be subject to new British sanctions.
The Foreign Office said the package of sanctions also included measures against “shady individuals and entities,” which have been “connected to the theft and resale of Ukrainian grain” from warehouses in Russian-occupied territories.
The U.K. agreed with its G7 partners — the U.S., Japan, Germany, Italy, Canada and France — to slap sanctions on Russian diamond exports on Thursday.
Russia’s diamond exports were worth more than £4 billion to its economy in 2021.
“I’m hopeful and confident that our partner countries will follow as they have done when we’ve done this previously,” Sunak told the BBC at the G7 summit in Japan. “That will make the sanctions more effective.”
There have been recent concerns in the West about the waning effects of financial and export sanctions on Russia.
Countries like India and China are beginning to import more energy from Russia, while there is also evidence of companies sidestepping sanctions by sending products to Russia via other countries.
