UK sanctions 'Putin's private army' Wagner Group who are 'trying to assassinate Zelensky' and have committed war crimes across the globe in new wave of measures as Boris joins Biden at NATO summit on Ukraine war

• Britain is giving Ukraine 6,000 more missiles and £25million to help defend itself
• Ordnance include Javelin missiles and Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapons
• Boris Johnson is attending NATO summit in Brussels to discuss Russia standoff

By JAMES TAPSFIELD, POLITICAL EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE and DANNY HUSSAIN

PUBLISHED: 09:02 GMT, 24 March 2022 | UPDATED: 12:41 GMT, 24 March 2022

The Wagner group (file picture) and Chechen special forces have allegedly been trying to kill the Ukrainian president since Russian troops launched a savage invasion of Ukraine on February 24

Boris Johnson today urged NATO to act 'harder' against Russia to end the war 'faster' as he unveiled a wave of new sanctions.  

The Wagner Group - known as 'Putin's private army' - are among the targets in the latest wave of measures, announced as the PM arrived in Brussels for talks with the military alliance.

 There are claims the notorious mercenaries have been tasked with assassinating Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian politicians.

The new sanctions cover individuals including billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, founder of Tinkoff bank Oleg Tinkov, Herman Gref, and Polina Kovaleva, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's alleged stepdaughter.

Galina Danilchenko, installed by Russia as the 'mayor' of Melitopol has also become the first person sanctioned for 'collaboration with Russian forces' in Ukraine.

Six more banks have also been sanctioned, according to the Foreign Office.

As he arrived in Brussels, Mr Johnson said: 'We've got to step up. We've got to increase our support. 

'We've got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people today, as we are, sanctioning the Wagner Group, looking at what we can do to stop Putin using his gold reserves, and also doing more to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.

'We're moving, really, from a programme of supporting resistance to supporting the Ukrainian defence of their own country.'

Mr Johnson is calling on countries such as Germany and France to ramp up their response, warning that the military alliance must not be 'diverted' by mounting nuclear threats from Moscow.

He suggested that Russia should be prevented from using gold reserves to prop up its economy - and also dismissed a bid to host the 2028 Euro football tournament as 'beyond satire'. 

Ahead of the NATO meeting - being attended by Joe Biden - the premier announced the UK is giving Ukraine 6,000 more missiles and £25million to support its desperate struggle against the Russian invasion. 

There are claims the mercenaries linked to Vladimir Putin (right) have been tasked with assassinating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left)

The wreckage of a shopping mall in Kyiv yesterday after a Russian missile strike

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the summit in Brussels today

Joe Biden (left), Emmanuel Macron (centre) and Boris Johnson (right) deep in conversation at the NATO summit today

The Kremlin has long denied ties to the Wagner group, a 600-strong mercenary group deployed worldwide to carry out Moscow's dirty work. 

Reports have long claimed the force is Putin's personal assassination squad, but are far enough removed to afford the Russian president plausible deniability.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and the presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak have been listed as among other alleged assassination targets. 

More than a dozen attempts are said to have been made to kill Mr Zelensky since Russian troops launched a savage invasion of Ukraine on February 24.   

Mr Johnson said this morning: 'Vladimir Putin is plainly determined to double down on his path of violence and aggression, absolutely brutal the way he's treating the Ukrainian people.

'We've got to step up, we've got to increase our support, we've got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people today as we are.

'Looking at what we can do to stop Putin using his gold reserves and also doing more to help the Ukrainians defend themselves.'

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss - who is also attending the NATO summit - said in a statement: 'These oligarchs, businesses and hired thugs are complicit in the murder of innocent civilians and it is right that they pay the price. 

'Putin should be under no illusions – we are united with our allies and will keep tightening the screw on the Russian economy to help ensure he fails in Ukraine. There will be no let-up'.

All those sanctioned will have UK assets frozen and be subject to travel bans.

The Foreign Office said the total global asset value of the sanctioned banks to £500billion while oligarchs and family members hit are worth more than £150billion.

The move comes after the Economic Crime Act streamlined the previous sanctions legislation so the UK can respond more swiftly.

Mr Zelensky is said to have survived multiple assassination bids by the Wagner group and Chechen special forces. 

The assassins were allegedly foiled by anti-war elements within Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) - Russia's successor to the KGB - who alerted Ukraine officials.

Ukraine Secretary of National Security and Defense told local press this month that he had received information from double agents 'who do not want to take part in this bloody war.'

The global crimes of the notorious Wagner Group used by Putin for 'dirty' missions 

The notorious Wagner Group, a private military company, has committed war crimes across the globe. They have now been tasked with assassinating Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Ukrainian politicians.

In December, the EU accused Wagner of 'serious human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mozambique'.

So what are some of the crimes the group has committed? 

 

Donbas, Ukraine: The Wagner group first appeared in 2014, to help Russia destabilise the Donbas region. 

Hundreds of members assassinated Donbas separist leaders who were not following Kremlin orders, with the killings blamed on Ukraine.    

Syria: Wagner was operating in Syria in 2015, where the Russians wanted to bolster the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad. 

In 2017, Wagner employees tortured a deserter from the Syrian army. 

Sickening footage showed how they    broke his legs with a sledgehammer and then crushed his chest, before cutting off his hands, his head and finally setting his corpse alight. 

The conduct of Wagner in Syria eventually became so bad that the Russian government refused to pay them, viewing them as dangerous cowboys. 

Wagner's founder and leader is Dmitry Utkin, a shaven-headed former lieutenant colonel in Spetsnaz – Russia's special forces. 

He is described as a neo-Nazi with  'an appreciation of the aesthetic of the Third Reich'. Utkin was sanctioned by the EU for ordering Bouta's killing.

Central African Republic: Wagner mercenaries arrived in CAR to support President Faustin-Archange Touadéra against rebels in 2017.

Wagner employees were accused by the UN and France of carrying out human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings of suspected rebels.

There were also accusations of rape, robbery and torture against unarmed civilians. 

The United Nations is probing an alleged massacre during a joint operation by government forces and Wagner fighters.

One military source told AFP that more than 50 people died, some in 'summary executions'

In 2018, three Russian journalists reporting on Wagner's activities in CAR were ambushed and shot dead. Another Russian journalist investigating the group 'fell' to his death from his fifth floor flat. 

Sudan: Wagner mercenaries are believed to have trained government forces. 

The group also 'spreads disinformation on social media and engages in illicit activities connected to gold mining'.

Mozambique: Wagner has supported the army in its fight against the Islamist militant insurgency in the north.

They have been accused of burning down villages, terrorising civilians and killing women and children. 

However, the group retreated in the face of jihadists after around a dozen men were killed in gruesome attacks by ISIS terrorists.

They were believed to have been killed in ambushes and botched operations. 

Mali: The Mali government employed 1,000 Wagner operatives in December.  

Russian operatives are believed to have helped train coup plotters who took over last year.  

Mercenaries were reportedly given a 24-person 'kill list' including the entire Ukrainian cabinet, mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko and his brother Wladimir - both boxing champions who have become iconic figures on the front lines of the capital.  

The attack was sabotaged after the plans reached the upper echelons of the Ukrainian government on March 5, prompting Kyiv to declare a 36-hour 'hard' curfew, ordering everyone indoors so that soldiers could sweep the streets for Russian saboteurs.

Another target of the sanctions is Imperial College graduate Polina Kovaleva, a glamorous 26-year-old who lives in a £4million home in Kensington.

Ms Kovaleva went to a private boarding school in Bristol before gaining a first-class degree in economics with politics at Loughborough University and later completing a masters in economics and strategy for business at Imperial College London.

She went on to work for Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, where she helped with mergers and acquisitions and later worked at Glencore, the mining company. Before buying her own home, she lived in Holland Park, west London, in an apartment in a townhouse that is owned by the Russian embassy.

Records show that the nearby Ukrainian embassy alleged Russia had wrongly claimed ownership of the property.

Polina now lives in an apartment, which Land Registry documents state she purchased for £4.4million with no mortgage in 2016, when she was 21, in a block just off Kensington High Street. It is still unknown who paid for Polina's flat.  

Polina's mother is reported to be Svetlana Polyakova, 51, a powerful member of the Russian Foreign Ministry who accompanies Lavrov on every foreign trip and has had a relationship since the early 2000s. It is rumoured that she is Lavrov's unofficial wife. 

Britain's Foreign Office has claimed that targeting Polina 'sends a strong signal that those benefiting from association of those responsible for Russian aggression are in scope of our sanctions'. 

In an interview with LBC before departing for the Belgian capital, Mr Johnson said: 'There is a huge economic punishment now being visited on the associates of Vladimir Putin. But… we've got to go further.

'My message today in NATO will be that there are ways in which the world can continue to intensify the pressure on Putin. And the more we do that now, the more pressure we apply now – particularly on things like gold – I believe the more we can shorten the war, shorten the slaughter in Ukraine.'

On Russia's bid to host the Euro 2028 football tournament, he said: 'I think it's beyond satire that any football organisation no matter how bonkers and you know, driven by lucre they may be, would want to give Russia in the present circumstances the right to host a tournament.' 

The UK has already provided thousands of Javelin missiles and Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapons, known as NLAWs. Ukrainian defenders have even been heard yelling 'God save the Queen!' as they fire them.   

The UK will also provide £25million in financial backing to fund Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's armed forces. 

The PM and his fellow leaders will discuss longer-term military, diplomatic and humanitarian support amid fears that Kyiv will run out of missiles in two weeks. 

Defending forces are using up a weeks' worth of weapons every 20 hours, and need far more to take the fight to Russia. 

Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's ambassador to the UK says Mr Zelensky will ask Nato to provide 'longer range' missiles. 

'We have enough weapons to stop tanks immediately when they approach us,' he said. 

'But to clear out our land we need something with a much greater distance.' 

The Ukrainian president last night said that Mr Johnson had given him 'assurances of his support' amid fears that France and Germany are backsliding on their own promises. 

UK unveils latest wave of sanctions 

ALFA-BANK JSC (Alfa-Bank)

The largest private bank in Russia. Separate from Alfa-Bank (Ukraine) which has not been sanctioned.

Alrosa

The world's largest diamond mining company, based in Mirny, Russia and with a market cap estimated at £4.69billion.

Eugene Markovich Shvidler

A billionaire businessman with close business links to Roman Abramovich. His net worth is reportedly £1.2billion.

Oleg Tinkov

Founder of Tinkoff Bank. His net worth is estimated at £3.4billion.

Herman Gref

Chief Executive Officer of Sberbank, the largest Russian bank. A former minister under Putin who worked with him in the St Petersburg Government in the 1990s. 

Oleg E Aksyutin

The Deputy Chairman of the Management Board at Gazprom PJSC, the Russian multinational energy corporation.

Didier Casimiro

First Vice President of Rosneft, the Russian State oil company.

Zeljko Runje

Deputy Chairman of the Management Board and First Vice President for Oil, Gas, and Offshore Business Development of Rosneft

Galina Danilchenko

Installed as 'mayor' of Melitopol by Russian authorities. This first individual sanctioned for collaborating with the Russian military in Ukraine.

Polina Kovaleva

Stepdaughter of Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. She reportedly owns a £4million property in London.

Boris Johnson (pictured with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, left) insisted the 'harder' the sanctions from the West the 'faster this thing can be over' as the gathering kicked off in Brussels

Emmanuel Macron and Turkish president Recip Tayyip Erdogan at the summit today

A Ukrainian serviceman fires an NLAW anti-tank weapon during an exercise in the Joint Forces Operation, in the Donetsk region

Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces members train to use an NLAW anti-tank weapon on the outskirts of Kyiv

German chancellor Olaf Scholz told his parliament yesterday: 'Ukraine can rely on our help. Since the beginning of the war, we have been supplying weapons and imposing sanctions that are second to none.' 

But Ukraine's ambassador to Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, accused the country of ignoring urgent requests for weapons for the last three weeks when 'every day counts to save the lives of the civilian population'. 

Officials in Kyiv say deliveries of defensive kit have 'slowed to a trickle'. 

'If we don't sort out the supply issue soon it is going to be a slaughter,' said Paul Grod, president of the Ukrainian World Congress. 

'We are going to have 200,000 members of the territorial defence trying to fight tanks with AK47s. Quite frankly, they will become cannon fodder. 

'The UK has been doing a marvellous job leading the way and there is big kudos to Britain in Kyiv, but more is needed. France and Germany have been problematic... really dragging their feet.' 

Mr Scholz struck a cautious tone yesterday on reducing Germany's energy dependence on Russia. 

'To do this from one day to the next would mean plunging our country and the whole of Europe into a recession,' he said. 'Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be in danger. Sanctions should not hurt European states harder than the Russian leadership.' 

Meanwhile, the UK's former defence attache to Moscow claimed yesterday that the Government ignored many warnings that Vladimir Putin would attack.

Retired air commodore Carl Scott, who served from 2011 to 2016, said Russia's 'long, dark march to war' was ignored due to 'corrupt Russian wealth' invested in London. 

'We reported the inevitability of conflict in detail, regularly,' he said in a scathing letter to the Financial Times. 

Mr Scott also said that the Kremlin had been 'greatly emboldened' by Brexit.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10647137/Boris-urges-West-against-Russia-NATO-summit.html