Johnson calls for more sanctions until all Russian troops leave Ukraine, including Crimea

Boris Johnson has called for sanctions to be intensified until all Russian troops have withdrawn from Ukraine, including those who have occupied Crimea since 2014.

Mr Johnson said no sanctions should be lifted in response to a ceasefire, warning other Western countries against "backsliding" over the coercive measures taken against Russia.

“It’s right that we should double down on military, defensive support in the way that we are. We will also make sure that there is no backsliding on sanctions by any of our friends and partners around the world,” he told the House of Commons.

"In fact we need to ratchet up the economic pressure on Vladimir Putin and it's certainly inconceivable that any sanctions could be taken off simply because there is ceasefire. That would be absolutely unthinkable in my view."

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Appearing before the Commons liaison committee later, the prime minister said Britain was not seeking to have President Putin removed from power but he called for sanctions to be stepped up until all Russian forces are withdrawn.

"I certainly don't think that you could expect the G7 to lift sanctions simply because there has been a ceasefire in Ukraine and that, again, goes straight into Putin's playbook. In my view we should continue to intensify sanctions with a rolling programme until every single one of his troops is out of Ukraine," he said.

Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat asked if that included Crimea. "As I said, every single one of these troops is out of Ukraine," Mr Johnson said.

Regroup

He defended Britain’s meagre response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis, which has seen only 25,000 visas granted to people fleeing the conflict, saying he believed the numbers would grow quickly. And he accused Russia of using Western eagerness to keep humanitarian corridors open as an opportunity to regroup its forces in Ukraine.

“The difficulty is the Russians are very adept at manipulating the humanitarian corridors and negotiations to regroup, to deal with other objectives and then come back and do it again,” he said.

“If we could think of an easy solution we would do it but we are, as everybody knows, heavily constrained.”

Mr Johnson said a new energy security strategy, which has been delayed until after Easter, will set out how Britain will move away from dependence on Russian oil and gas.

“We have got to recognise that in the UK we have just failed for a generation to put in enough long-term supply and it has been one of those colossal mistakes. Renewables are fantastic, offshore wind, and I stress, offshore wind, I think has massive potential, but so does nuclear,” he said.

Luxury yachts

Mr Johnson’s government, which was initially slow to sanction Russian oligarchs, on Wednesday put in place new powers to prevent luxury yachts and private aircraft owned by sanctioned persons from receiving technical assistance. It will become an offence to offer such assistance, including the supply of parts and maintenance.

"Today's legislation adds new routes at our disposal to deprive oligarchs access to their luxury toys. Our economic and transport sanctions are working to suffocate those most complicit in Putin's regime ensuring that no one on UK soil can support Putin's inhuman assault in Ukraine," transport secretary Grant Shapps said.