President Vladimir Putin ended the attack and pledged “no further aggression”. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has already warned that his government, together with its allies, is ready to “steadily ratchet up” sanctions on President Putin and his supporters.
“Those sanctions should only come off with a full cease-fire and withdrawal, but also commitments that there will be no further aggression,” Minister Truss said. “And also, there’s the opportunity to have snapback sanctions if there is further aggression in future,” she added. “That is a real lever that I think can be used.” The Foreign Secretary’s comments are regarded as a fresh invitation for Moscow to cut Russian losses amid the war which has also sparked massive cut-off of Russian funds and assets in the international financial system.
However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is of the view that merely stopping the invasion of Ukraine is not sufficient to relieve Russia of Western economic sanctions. In an interview with NPR a couple of weeks ago, the US official noted that the sanctions against the transcontinental nation are “not designed to be permanent”, and that they could “go away” if Moscow changes its behaviour. However, he went on to state that any decision by the Kremlin to pullback would have to be “in effect, irreversible”. “[…] this can’t happen again, that Russia won’t pick up and do exactly what it’s doing in a year or two years or three years,” the Secretary of State said.
