Ukrainian campaign group Razom We Stand has welcomed the new package of UK sanctions on Russia announced yesterday by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, calling it a promising start — but warned that the measures leave the Kremlin’s most important revenue streams largely untouched, and renewed its demand that the UK Government immediately cancel its public sector energy contract with TotalEnergies.
The package, announced on 6 August, added 19 targets to the UK sanctions list, including six Russian banks, six shadow fleet tankers and four companies supplying rare metals for Russian military equipment. The package also designates Novatek’s subsidiary, Northern Engineering LLC, which was established specifically to address the lack of access to Western LNG infrastructure and technology. However, loopholes and a lack of meaningful implementation on the government’s previously announced LNG Maritime Shipment Ban are glaring problems that still allow the flow of billions into Russia’s war chest.
Dr Svitlana Romanko, Founder and Executive Director of Razom We Stand, said:
“Foreign Secretary Miliband’s first sanctions package shows he understands the stakes, and we welcome it. But 19 new names on a list will not choke off the billions still reaching Putin’s war chest through UK-insured tankers, UK-managed LNG carriers, and UK Government contracts. It is indefensible for the UK to sanction Russian banks and tankers while its own government buildings are heated with gas from TotalEnergies, a company that still has stakes in Russian energy projects, effectively helping fund the war that costs Ukrainians their lives every day. The Foreign Secretary should match yesterday’s package with an immediate commitment: no renewal for TotalEnergies, and full enforcement of the sanctions the UK has already proposed.”
What Razom We Stand and partners are calling for
In a joint policy paper submitted to the new UK Government — developed with the B4Ukraine coalition, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), the Dekleptocracy Project, Mission Ukraine, Stephen Hoffman Consulting, UK Friends of Ukraine and Urgewald — Razom We Stand set out further steps the UK can take immediately to close gaps in its own sanctions regime, including:
- Aligning UK shadow fleet designations with the EU and US. 176 vessels already sanctioned by allied jurisdictions remain undesignated by the UK, while the UK’s own enforcement body has issued zero fines for oil price cap violations despite over 700 investigations.
- Closing the loophole letting Russian-refined fuel back into Britain. A licence issued in May currently permits imports of diesel and jet fuel refined from Russian crude in third-country refineries.
- Ending the exemption for Sakhalin-2 and Yamal LNG, which lets UK shipping, insurance and financial services keep serving these projects until January 2027, despite a headline UK ban on Russian LNG shipping services.
- Introducing a full maritime services ban on Russian oil and coal, closing a gap that has let UK insurers cover an estimated €15.1 billion of Russian coal exports since the invasion.
- Sanctioning the infrastructure Russia depends on to move Arctic LNG, including the Murmansk ship-to-ship transfer hub used to move Arctic LNG 2 cargoes between floating storage units and LNG tankers for further transhipment.
None of this requires new legislation — only enforcement of sanctions the UK already has, and closure of licences and exemptions it has itself created.
Russia-friendly TotalEnergies contract: an unresolved problem for the UK government
Razom We Stand has spent the past year pressing the UK Government to end its public sector gas contract with TotalEnergies, which supplies 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, the Foreign Office, the Treasury and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Together with B4Ukraine and a cross-party group of British MPs, we have written to the Cabinet Office twice over the past year: in July 2025 and again in January 2026, urging ministers not to renew the contract. TotalEnergies holds a 20% stake in Russia’s Yamal LNG project and continues to import Russian-linked LNG into Europe. The contract enters its renewal process in February 2026.
Razom We Stand is calling on the UK Government to:
- Publicly commit now to not renew the TotalEnergies contract during the current review process.
- Immediately disclose the full terms and scope of all government contracts with TotalEnergies.
- Set out a clear timeline for transitioning government departments to suppliers free of Russian energy exposure.
