Britain imposes more sanctions on Russian individuals, firms

dpa London The British government has imposed sanctions on an additional 65 individuals and companies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. They in...

dpa LondonThe British government has imposed sanctions on an additional 65 individuals and companies in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.They include Russian arms maker Kronstadt as manufacturer of the Orion armed drone and other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), according to an update from the British Defence Ministry late Friday.“These systems have been widely deployed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said the statement, which is based on information from the British intelligence services.“Robust Ukrainian air defence has almost certainly limited manned flights beyond their front lines, hence Russia has highly likely been forced to use more UAVs instead,” it added.The sanctions are aimed at damaging Russia’s defence industrial complex and limiting its ability to replace any drones lost.British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss presented some of the new sanctions against Russian oligarchs and institutions, such as banks, on Thursday.Starting before the invasion on February 24, Britain began releasing information from its intelligence services contrary to previous practice. It currently puts out daily assessments of the war’s progress.The United States administration has adopted a similar policy on releasing intelligence information.In its latest update, the Ministry of Defence in London tweeted on Saturday that Russia continued to besiege a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol.“Russian forces are proving reluctant to engage in large-scale urban infantry operations, rather preferring to rely on the indiscriminate use of air and artillery bombardments in an attempt to demoralise defending forces,” the ministry said.“It is likely Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower on urban areas as it looks to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties.”