President Putin’s daughters added to growing list of Russians sanctioned by the EU

EU leaders are reportedly planning to place Vladimir Putin’s daughters on its latest sanction hit-list in its latest crackdown on Moscow in the wake of alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Katerina Tikhonova, 35, and Mariya Vorontsova, 36, are on the EU’s latest draft list of targets that includes oligarchs, politicians and those said to be within Putin’s inner circle.

Though, not much is known about their personal lives but Tikhonova, a scientist and former acrobat, and Vorontosva, an endocrinologist, are expected to be subject to asset freezes and travel bans across the continent from Wednesday.

It is unclear if the pair have holdings outside of Russia, any potential life of luxury they could have led in Europe is now likely to be a distant dream.

It comes as the G7, EU and United States are said to have agreed on a ban on ‘all new investment’ in Russia as part of its latest economic retaliation against Putin.

The new measures will also widen the net of sanctions on Russian banks and state owned businesses and aim to cripple government officials and their family members.

The latest round of sanctions are understood to have been trigged by allegations of ‘genocide’, atrocities and war crimes against Ukrainian civilians discovered after Russian troops fell back from their position in Bucha, near Kyiv. 

Further Russian imports worth an estimated £4.6bn each year, understood to include cement, liquor, vodka and caviar, will also be banned under the new raft of measures. 

Other measures proposed by the EU’s executive arm include sanctions on more individuals and four key Russian banks, including the second-largest, VTB.

‘These four banks, which we now totally cut off from the markets, represent 23% of market share in the Russian banking sector,’ EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said.