Boris Johnson
Boris JohnsonReuters

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Friday that the UK will be implementing sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov effective immediately in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian reported.

Johnson also told NATO leaders that “immediate action” was necessary to block Russia’s ability to use the Swift global financial platform in order to “inflict maximum pain” on Putin.

Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is the global financial payment mechanism that allows the rapid transfer of money internationally. Based in Belgium, it is used by over 11,000 banks in more than 200 nations.

Speaking to a virtual meeting of NATO officials, Johnson said that Putin was “engaging in a revanchist mission to overturn post-cold war order.”

A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office described Johnson as calling on NATO leaders to “take immediate action against Swift to inflict maximum pain on President Putin and his regime.”

The sanctions Johnson told NATO the UK would introduce immediately against Putin and Lavrov would be on top of the current package of sanctions that Britain announced yesterday.

The new sanctions would put the UK on the same page as the EU, who announced similar sanctions on Friday, freezing the assets of Putin and Lavrov.

The spokesperson said that Johnson warned NATO that Putin’s “ambitions might not stop there and that this was a Euro-Atlantic crisis with global consequences.”

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)