Boris Johnson: Sanctions Won't Work Unless Oil, Gas Stopped

Laying out six steps for the West to take to help Ukraine amid an invasion, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson concludes sanctions against Vladimir Putin and Russia are going to be "insufficient" unless allies cut off Russian oil and gas.

"We must maximize the economic pressure on Mr. Putin's regime," Johnson wrote in a pointed op-ed Sunday in The New York Times. "We must go further on economic sanctions, expelling every Russian bank from SWIFT and giving our law enforcement agencies unprecedented powers to peel back the facade of dirty Russian money in London. We must go after the oligarchs. So far, the United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on more than 300 elites and entities, including Mr. Putin himself.

"But these measures will be insufficient unless Europe begins to wean itself off the Russian oil and gas that bankroll Mr. Putin's war machine."

The sanctions pressure and call to cut off funding for Putin's invasion was the third item among the six steps to help Ukraine, "starting today."

"It is no longer enough to express warm platitudes about the rules-based international order," Johnson wrote. "We are going to have to actively defend it against a sustained attempt to rewrite the rules by force and other tools, such as economic coercion.

"We must restore effective deterrence in Europe, where, for too long, the very success of NATO and of America's security guarantee has bred complacency. What happens in Europe will have profound implications worldwide."

The five other prongs of Johnson's response plan:

• "Mobilize an international humanitarian coalition."
• Provide "defensive equipment.
• Set example to Russia on how to "prevent any creeping normalization" of its aggressions.
• Seek "diplomacy and de-escalation, provided that the government of Ukraine has full agency in any potential settlement."
• "Strengthen Euro-Atlantic security," including supporting the Balkans and even non-NATO allies Moldova and Georgia on NATO's eastern flank.

"Ukrainians have bravely defended their country," Johnson concluded. "It is their valor that has united the international community. We can't let them down."

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