A UKRAINIAN politician has heaped praise on Scotland for supporting her country – but warned UK sanctions do not go far enough.
Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, thanked Scotland for being supportive of Ukraine as fears of a full-scale Russian invasion rise.
She noted pressure from MSPs on the UK Government to do more and mentioned an official visit to her country by SNP politicians Alyn Smith, Stewart Mcdonald and Dave Doogan who flew to Kyiv for talks with the Ukraine Foreign Ministry.
The Holos party politician said she was disappointed with the UK Government, which she said did not go far enough in response to Russian president Vladimir Putin sending troops to eastern Ukraine.
READ MORE: David Pratt: Russia-Ukraine endgame could be where it all began
Vasylenko, co-chair of the UK Parliamentary Friendship Group, hoped the UK and US would ban Russia entirely from the internal banking system Swift.
Speaking about the sanctions, she said: “I was honestly expecting more. There was so much talk about it and on the day proceeding them before they were introduced that really I was hoping to see something like an agreement between the UK and the US to switch off Russia completely from the Swift system.
“I was expecting, if not that then to see concrete, personal sanctions imposed on the residents of the UK who are family members of Russian Duma members.”
Sanctions for #Russia & Incentives for #Ukraine. Next step must be full economic isolation of RF and more market transactions with Kyiv. Ukraine should not be allow to fall economically. And this risk is very high
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) February 23, 2022
Vasylenko added: “All of the Russian Duma unanimously voted to recognise these territories of Ukraine are sovereign states. That in itself is a crime.
“It’s against international law, so that should be sanctioned.”
She also wanted the UK Government to issue sanctions against family members of the Russian parliament living in London.
READ MORE: Kevin McKenna: From Putin to the Queen, Westminster sees it all as an opportunity to exploit
The UK capital has been labelled “Londongrad” due to many wealthy Russians using a visa scheme allowing them to invest £2 million in the UK and bring their families to Britain with permanent residence.
The scheme was later dropped following concerns over potential money laundering.
Vasylenko echoes similar calls made by Scotland’s First Minister who urged the Prime Minister to go further in sanctioning Russia.
Nicola Sturgeon said there “needs to be much tougher action” on the country after Johnson sanctioned five Russian banks and three “very high net wealth” individuals in what he called the “first tranche” of measures against Russia.
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