UK prime minister Boris Johnson will hold talks with his Canadian and Dutch counterparts as the West seeks to agree an additional package of economic sanctions against Russia.
In the talks with Canadian premier Justin Trudeau and Dutch PM Mark Rutte, Johnson is expected to push for Russia to be excluded from the Swift global payments system among other proposals and will urge the international community to support him.
Further measures taken by the UK today will likely see Parliament approve the Economic Crime Bill, which will crack down on the money of oligarchs who are known allies of Russian president, Vladimir Putin. It is expected that MPs will vote through the legislation in a single sitting after the Bill has been debated later on Monday.
As part of the new laws, a register will be set up to ensure that foreign owners of UK property must declare and verify their identities with Companies House.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, said that the Bill would make it easier to hit individuals and businesses with more “crippling sanctions” to target the Putin regime.
The Labour party has already confirmed its support of the legislation, but suggested that the timeframe for foreign property owners to register with Companies House be limited to 28 days, rather than the proposed six months.
Former minister and Conservative MP David Davis has also tabled an amendment which would prevent anyone that the government is considering sanctioning from offloading their assets or moving them out of the country before sanctions are confirmed.
Despite this action, the UK’s humanitarian response to the Ukraine conflict has been criticised after it was confirmed over the weekend that only 50 visas had been granted to Ukrainian refugees.
Russia has confirmed that will open its own humanitarian corridors, but its proposed routes out of Ukraine lead into Belarus and Russia. The move has been condemned by Ukraine and by the UK’s Europe minister, James Cleverly.
Cleverly declared that the most humanitarian course of action from Russia would be to “end this completely illegal, completely unjustified invasion of Ukraine” and labelled the decision to offer Ukrainians “routes into the arms of the country that is currently destroying yours” as “cynical beyond belief”.
Speaking about the UK’s refugee scheme, Cleverly said that “significantly” more Ukrainians would be granted visas and that the government was looking to make the process “as quick, easy and as fast as possible”.
He said: “We are looking to create something very, very large-scale very, very quickly. Initially it will be slower than we would like but that will pick up.”
The United Nations reports that over 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country since Russia launched its military offensive.
While Westminster continues to hone its humanitarian strategy, the UK has pledged £74 million of additional financial support to Ukraine which will go toward its public sector infrastructure. This is in addition to £220 million of aid already sent.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said of the new funding: “While only Putin can fully end the suffering in Ukraine, today's new funding will continue to help those facing the deteriorating humanitarian situation.”
Image taken by Wikimedia Commons
