- 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
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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.'
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.
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