PRESS RELEASE : New sanctions demonstrate G7 resolve on Russia [May 2023]

• Prime Minister will focus on redoubling support for Ukraine’s defence on the first day of the G7 Summit
• UK announces new sanctions on Russian diamonds, metals and military-industrial complex
• G7 leaders will visit Hiroshima Peace Park before holding talks on Ukraine, Indo-Pacific security and nuclear disarmament

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will warn against complacency in defending our values and standing up to autocratic regimes, as he meets G7 leaders for the first day of the Summit in Hiroshima today [Friday 19th May].

The UK is today announcing a ban on Russian diamonds, an industry worth $4 billion in exports in 2021, as well as imports of Russian-origin copper, aluminium and nickel.

Alongside these trade measures, the Government is also preparing new individual designations – targeting an additional 86 people and companies from Putin’s military industrial complex, and those involved in key revenue streams such as energy, metals, and shipping.

They include those supporting the Kremlin to actively undermine the impact of existing sanctions, as the UK continues to work with G7 partners to tackle all forms of sanctions circumvention.

This announcement follows the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Zelenskyy on Monday where he confirmed new military aid and stressed the importance of long-term international support for Ukraine, including for the country’s future in NATO. The leaders discussed Ukraine’s path to deeper political partnership and increased interoperability with the G7 and NATO allies.

The Prime Minister will visit the site of the A-Bomb dome at the Hiroshima Peace Park later today with fellow G7 leaders, before attending sessions on international cooperation, the G7 response to Ukraine, Indo-Pacific security policy and nuclear non-proliferation. He will urge the international community to stay the course on Ukraine, ensuring it has the diplomatic, military and economic support it needs, in the interests of international peace and security.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said:

“For the sake of global peace and security, we must show that brutal violence and coercion does not reap rewards.

“As today’s sanctions announcements demonstrate, the G7 remains unified in the face of the threat from Russia and steadfast in our support for Ukraine.

“We are meeting today in Hiroshima, a city that exemplifies both the horrors of war and the dividends of peace. We must redouble our efforts to defend the values of freedom, democracy and tolerance, both in Ukraine and here in the Indo-Pacific.”

The UK has implemented the most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy to undermine Russia’s war effort. To date we have sanctioned over 1,500 individuals and entities, freezing more than £18 billion of assets in the UK, and sanctioned over £20 billion of UK-Russia goods trade.

In April, the latest step was to introduce a ban on all items that Russia has been found using on the battlefield to date. We will continue to work alongside the G7 to deny Russia access to any of our goods or technologies that it could use in its war machine.

The UK has already taken a lead on action on Russian diamonds, sanctioning the state-owned company Alrosa and hiking tariffs by an additional 35 percent.

Today’s announcement goes further. We will legislate later this year to ban imports of Russian diamonds, and end all imports of Russian-origin copper, aluminium and nickel, building on existing bans of Russian iron and steel.

Sanctions imposed on Russia by the UK and our G7 partners are having a clear and progressive impact in degrading Putin’s war effort. Moscow is cut off from Western financial markets and there is a sustained reduction in the country’s oil revenues. More than 60% of Putin’s ‘war chest’ of foreign reserves has been immobilised – worth £275 billion.

G7 action is starving Russia’s military of key Western components and technology, restricting its ability to fight a 21stcentury war against the Ukrainian people.