Ukraine-Russia: Downing Street admit it could take 'months' to sanction oligarchs as Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky says talks 'only way' to end war

Downing Street have admitted it could take “months” to sanction oligarchs as the Ukrainian president said talks were the “only way” to end the war.

The UK Government was under mounting pressure on Thursday to go faster in targeting Russian oligarchs over the conflict, with concerns it could take “weeks and months” to build legally-sound cases.

The blow to Britain’s attempts to put pressure on Russia came as Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed he needed to speak with Russian president Vladimir Putin to end the war.

Today’s peace talks between Ukraine and Russia led to some limited progress, with humanitarian corridors to allow civilians to escape Ukraine agreed.

A group of people supporting the Sunflower of Peace charity organisation arrive to place sunflowers outside the Russian Embassy in west London, to mark the first week of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Following the end of the second day of negotiations on the border between the Ukraine and Belarus, the Ukrainian delegation welcomed the move, but said it was not what Ukraine had been hoping for.

Ukrainian delegate Mikhail Podolyak had called for an immediate ceasefire.

His calls came on a day European intelligence officials warned Russia had drafted plans for public executions and violent crowd control to break Ukrainian morale.

Britain is racing to seize oligarchs’ assets in the UK, such as luxury yachts and property, but there are fears in Government this could take longer than expected.

Sources say the UK Government is “working round the clock”, but foreign secretary Liz Truss admitted on Thursday it was important to get it right.

Visiting Lithuania to show support to Nato allies, Ms Truss said the Government must “make sure we have the right evidence to put in place those sanctions”.

She said: “I’m very clear that legal threats will have no impact on our ability to sanction oligarchs and we will continue to work through our list, we will continue to sanction oligarchs and there is nowhere for any of Putin’s cronies to hide.

"We need to make sure that the Russian economy is crippled, so it is unable to continue to fund Putin and the war machine. And I suspect that the Russian people will draw their own conclusions from that."

Tom Tugendhat, the chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, called for the Government to go further to follow European allies to seize oligarchs’ assets.

He said: “We should be looking immediately to seize those assets linked to those who are profiting from Putin’s war machine, holding it in trust and returning it to the Russian people as soon as possible.”

Senior Tory MP Tobias Ellwood echoed the call, warning there would be “increasing public anger that we’re not doing enough to help our fellow Ukrainians in their hour of need”.

The chairman of the Commons Defence Committee explained: “There’s a race to squeeze Putin given the war crimes he’s now committing in Ukraine and London continues to be seen as ground zero as to where oligarchs’ investments sit. So we need to be impounding these assets in days, not weeks or months.

“Every day we wait offers more time for the oligarchs to move their wealth to other parts of the world. Don’t forget it’s not their wealth, this is the stolen wealth from the Russian people, which is utilised to keep Putin in power.”

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy called for new legislation so the UK’s sanctions regime on individuals “can catch up with our allies and partners”.

He said: “It is totally unacceptable that a week after Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, just 11 oligarchs have faced sanctions by the UK Government.”

Downing Street sought to downplay the issue, with the Prime Minister’s official spokesman insisting: “We are not being held back from introducing sanctions.”

The spokesman added: “When it comes to individuals, it is the case that we need to do the preparatory work, the requisite work, to make sure it is legally sound before introduction.

“Like I said, we will keep that under review and if there are ways to further speed it up, then we will.”

The spokesman also sought to argue that sanctions on the banks funding the Russian president’s military machine would exert more pressure than going after Mr Putin’s wealthy allies.

“Our judgment is placing sanctions particularly on large banks and companies … that is what we believe will exert the most pressure on Putin’s regime and will throttle off funding for this illegal war against Ukraine,” he said.

It came as Mr Zelensky called for a sit down with Mr Putin to end the war.

He said: “It’s not about ‘I want to talk with Putin’. I think I have to talk with Putin. The world has to talk with Putin because there are no other ways to stop this war.

“Sit down and talk to me, but not from 30m away like with Macron. I am your neighbour, I am a normal man.”

Ukrainian negotiators arrived by helicopter to continue talks with Russia in Belarus Thursday afternoon.

The day also saw a European intelligence official claim Moscow had drafted strategies to break morale to discourage Ukrainians from fighting back.

The official said Moscow planned to crack down on protests, detain opponents and potentially carry out public executions.

On Thursday the port city of Kherson became the first major city to fall, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces had taken over local government headquarters.

The Kremlin was pressing its offensive on multiple fronts, but a long column of tanks had apparently been stalled outside the capital of Kyiv for days.

Ukraine has said more than 2,000 civilians have died during the assault. A humanitarian crisis has unfurled in Europe as the United Nations said more than one million people have now fled to seek sanctuary from the Russian invasion.

The French president spoke with Mr Putin on Thursday, and warned after the “worst is yet to come”, with the Russian leader claiming the war was “going according to plan”.

Mr Putin, who initiated the call, repeated that Moscow’s objective was “neutralisation, demilitarisation and de-Nazification”, and Mr Macron told him he was “lying to yourself” and making a “major mistake”.

“There was nothing in what President Putin said to reassure us,” the French official said.

Elsewhere, culture secretary Nadine Dorries fought back tears as she thanked journalists in Ukraine who are risking their lives to cover the invasion by Russia.

Speaking in the Commons, she told MPs the audience for the BBC’s Russian language news website has “gone up from 3.1 million to 10.7 million in the last week”.

Earlier health secretary Sajid Javid said the NHS must stop using energy supplied by the Russian-owned firm Gazprom.

Mr Javid is believed to be in talks with NHS England over ending the contracts, which are reported by Politico to have been worth £16 million in 2021.

Also in England, the Premier League is looking at the suspension or termination of its Russian television deal following the country’s invasion.