UK to ban Aeroflot airline in 'largest package' of Russian sanctions

Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday announced an imminent ban on the ability of the Aeroflot airline to operate in the UK as he outlined a new tranche of sanctions against Russia following President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

The largest and most severe package of economic sanctions against Russia tabled in the House of Commons includes a full asset-freeze of Russian state-owned bank VTB and powers to allow the UK to exclude Russian banks from Britain's financial system.

The UK government is set to place a limit on the amount that Russian nationals can deposit in their UK bank accounts and Russian state and private companies will be banned from raising money in the UK.

These trade sanctions will constrain Russia's military, industrial and technological capabilities for years to come, said Johnson.

Legislation to enforce some of these wide-ranging sanctions will be laid in Parliament by early next week.

"Putin will stand condemned in the eyes of the world, and of history. He will never be able to cleanse the blood of Ukraine from his hands," Johnson said in Parliament.

"Now we see him for what he is, a blood-stained aggressor who believes in imperial conquest," he said.