We’re working on high-impact sanctions: Britain warns Russia

LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters)  - Britain warned Moscow on Thursday that it was working with Western partners on high-impact sanctions targetting Russia’s financial sector should it invade Ukraine.

Russia has massed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border and though Moscow says it has no plans to invade its neighbour, President Vladimir Putin has demanded legally-binding guarantees that NATO will not expand further eastwards.

“We will not accept the campaign Russia is waging to subvert its democratic neighbours,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told parliament. “They have falsely cast Ukraine as a threat to justify their aggressive stance.”

“Russia is the aggressor here,” Truss said. “NATO has always been a defensive alliance.” Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, drawing sanctions and condemnation from the West. Kyiv wants the territory back.

Truss said that any further military incursion into Ukraine by Russia would bring “massive consequences, including coordinated sanctions to impose a severe cost on Russia’s interests and economy.”