A Ukrainian campaigner challenged Boris Johnson over the UK’s failure to bring in swift sanctions against Russians resident in London, in an emotional intervention during a press conference in Poland.
Daria Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre, also pressed Johnson over the collective refusal of Nato countries to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
Kaleniuk told Johnson, who was giving a press conference in Warsaw on Tuesday after talks with his Polish counterpart, that she was from Kyiv and had passed across the border into Poland in recent days.
“Ukrainian women and Ukrainian children are in deep fear because of bombs and missiles which are going from the sky. Ukrainian people are desperately asking for the rights to protect our sky, we are asking for a no-fly zone,” she said.
“What’s the alternative for the no-fly zone? Nato is not willing to defend because Nato is afraid of world war three but it’s already started and it’s Ukrainian children who are there taking the hit.
“You are talking about more sanctions, prime minister, but Roman Abramovich is not sanctioned, he’s in London, his children are not in the bombardments, his children are there in London.”
Johnson responded: “I just want to say I am acutely conscious there is not enough we can do as the UK government to help in the way that you want. I’ve got to be honest about that. When you talk about the no-fly zone … unfortunately the implication of that is that the UK would be engaged in shooting down Russian planes, would be engaged in direct combat with Russia. That’s not something we can do.”
He said the UK had been among the first to “tighten the economic noose” around Putin’s regime, and “Putin and Putin alone” was responsible for the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who recently passed stewardship of Chelsea FC to a charitable foundation, is said to have gone to Belarus to try to help negotiate peace. Chris Bryant, a Labour MP, told parliament last Thursday that Abramovich should have sanctions placed on him.
Abramovich has vehemently disputed reports suggesting his alleged closeness to Vladimir Putin or that he has done anything to merit sanctions.
Johnson is coming under mounting pressure over the UK’s slowness to bring in sanctions against oligarchs close to Putin, with the only asset freezes and travel bans so far brought in targeting Gennady Timchenko, Russia’s sixth richest oligarch, and Boris and Igor Rotenberg.
Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat MP, has listed in parliament 35 Russians who have been suggested by the imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny as possible targets for sanctions.
Johnson on Tuesday acknowledged more could be done to tighten sanctions. “There is plainly more to be done on [the payments system] Swift, we can tighten up yet further on Swift, even though it has had a dramatic effect already, I think we do need to go further,” he said.
“There’s more to be done on Sberbank, there’s more to be done on the freezing of Russian assets. I think there’s genuine amazement and dismay in Russia about what has happened already but there is more to be done.”
There could be more “severing of sporting links” and “cracking down on the billionaires associated with Vladimir Putin,” he added.
At a later press conference in Tapa, Estonia, Johnson pressed home the message that Nato is a “defensive alliance” and would not be placing troops into direct conflict with Russian soldiers.
“I think for any Nato member to get involved actively in a conflict with Russia is a huge step which is not being actively contemplated by any member,” he said.
“We will not fight Russian forces in Ukraine, and our reinforcements are firmly within the borders of Nato members and they are profoundly the right thing to do.”
Speaking alongside him, the Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, urged the west to upgrade support for the Baltic states, which she called “the most vulnerable part of Nato”.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, responded by stressing the alliance’s determination to defend its member countries.
“There must be no doubt, no room for miscalculation or misunderstanding. Our commitment to article 5 of the Washington treaty is iron-clad. We will protect and defend every inch of Nato territory.”
