Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich slapped with heavy sanctions

Roman billionaire Russian oligarch and Chelsea football club owner Arkadyevich Abramovich is a and politician has seen his assets frozen, a prohibition on transactions with United Kingdom individuals and businesses, a travel ban and transport sanctions imposed.

He becomes one of the latest victims of UK's sanctions against individuals linked to the Russian government which attacked Ukraine.

In a statement the United Kingdom said as part of the UK's leading efforts to isolate Putin and those around him, these oligarchs – who have a collective net worth of around £15bn - will have their assets in the UK frozen, they are banned from travelling here and no UK citizen or company may do business with them.

Those newly-sanctioned by the UK include Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea Football Club, worth more than £9 billion; leading industrialist Oleg Deripaska worth £2 billion, and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin. A further group of Russia-based oligarchs close to Putin have also been placed under sanction. Those sanctioned today are:

•    Roman Abramovich owner of Chelsea FC and has stakes in steel giant Evraz and Norilsk Nickel
•    Oleg Deripaska has stakes in En+ Group
•    Igor Sechin is the Chief Executive of Rosneft
•    Andrey Kostin is Chairman of VTB bank
•    Alexei Miller is CEO of energy company Gazprom
•    Nikolai Tokarev is president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft
•    Dmitri Lebedev is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bank Rossiya

Speking after the statement was issued, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, "There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin's vicious assault on Ukraine.

"Today's sanctions are the latest step in the UK's unwavering support for the Ukrainian people. We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies."