Vladimir Putin’s daughters set to face sanctions over Ukraine invasion

President Putin’s two daughters will be among the latest prominent Russians to face sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, according to a news report, as European countries are also poised to approve a ban on imports of Russian coal.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the United States is likely to announce the measures against Maria Vorontsova, 36, and Katerina Tikhonova, 35, later this week, acting on a suggestion by the European Union.

Putin has always kept his family out of the media, and little is known of Tikhonova, a businesswoman, and Vorontsova, a doctor, both children of his ex-wife, Lyudmila Putina, from whom he divorced in 2013.

This morning’s key developments:

• President Zelensky of Ukraine said that the United Nations was failing in “the functions for which it was created”.
• Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, announced that a further $100 million in American military aid would be sent to Ukraine for additional anti-armour systems.
• General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US should consider establishing new permanent bases in eastern Europe to deal with Russian aggression.
• Zelensky said the issue of Crimea and Donbas, annexed and controlled by Russia, should be separated from peace negotiations.
• In the UN security council, the Russian ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, denied that Russian troops had committed any atrocities against civilians.

The suggestion that Putin’s daughters will face individual sanctions is a measure of the personal anger directed towards the Russian president after the discovery of murdered civilians over the weekend. Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, also faces new sanctions.

The EU is expected to approve today a fifth round of sanctions against Moscow, including a ban on coal and on new investment in Russia, and on Russian ships in European ports.

The limits on existing sanctions, and especially Germany’s refusal to countenance an EU ban on imports of Russian natural gas, continues to frustrate Zelensky, who spoke scathingly of the UN hours after addressing its security council.

“The UN security council exists, and security in the world doesn’t. For anyone,” he told Ukrainians in his online address. “The United Nations is currently unable to carry out the functions for which it was created. And only one state is to blame for this: Russia.”

He added: “I hope the world will draw conclusions. Otherwise there will be only one institution left in the world to guarantee the security of states. Namely: weapons.”

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic will become the first EU country since the beginning of the invasion to supply Ukraine directly with offensive weapons, with the dispatch of Soviet-made T-72 tanks and BVP-1 infantry fighting vehicles.