UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a raft of new sanctions on Russia at the G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday, in a move that underscored the growing rift between Kyiv’s European allies and the US.
The sanctions, which target oil tankers and two UK citizens accused of smuggling millions of dollars worth of electronics into Russia, are aimed to “strike right at the heart of Putin’s war machine,” Starmer said.
The sanctions came after US President Donald Trump abruptly left the summit: Officials had hoped Trump would meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss a possible US arms sale. Trump, however, signaled before he left that he was skeptical of levying economic sanctions on Russia, calling instead for more peace negotiations, which have stalled.