BBC News :
Western nations have ordered personal sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the invasion of Ukraine.
The men’s assets in the US, EU, UK and Canada will be frozen and, in the case of the US, a travel ban imposed.
The announcement came on the second day of the Russian attack on its neighbour.
Such punitive measures against leaders are rare. The EU has only ever imposed sanctions on the presidents of Syria and Belarus, for instance.
The US, for its part, has previously announced measures against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in addition to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
It is unclear how significant the assets of Mr Putin and Mr Lavrov are in the US, EU, UK and Canada, and what practical impact the sanctions will have.
Russia said they showed the West’s “absolute impotence” on foreign policy.
Russia later vetoed a draft UN resolution to condemn the invasion of Ukraine after a debate at the UN Security Council.
India, China and the UAE all abstained from voting, while 11 other members voted in favour. Speaking after the vote, the US ambassador to the UN Linda
Thomas-Greenfield said, “Russia has abused its power today to veto our strong words, but Russia cannot veto our words.””President Putin is the aggressor here, there is no middle ground.”
The sanctions come as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia would try to “storm” Kyiv on Friday night. In a video statement, Mr Zelensky said “this night will be hard, very hard, but morning will come.
“This night the enemy will be using all available means to break our resistance. This night they will launch an assault.”This night we must persevere. The fate of Ukraine is being decided right now.”
