The US, EU and UK have ordered personal sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the invasion of Ukraine.
The men’s assets in their territories will be frozen and, in the case of the US, a travel ban will also be imposed.
The announcement came on the second day of the Russian attack on its neighbour.
Such punitive measures against leaders are rare. The EU has only ever imposed sanctions on the presidents of Syria and Belarus, for instance.
The US, for its part, has previously announced measures against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in addition to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
It is unclear how significant the assets of Mr Putin and Mr Lavrov are in the US, EU and UK and what practical impact the sanctions will have.
Russia said they showed the West’s “absolute impotence” on foreign policy.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the Russian president and his top diplomat were “responsible for the deaths of innocent people in Ukraine, and for trampling on the international system”.
“We, as Europeans, do not accept that,” she said, after a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.
Canada will impose sanctions directly on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle of advisers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday afternoon.
The sanctions will also extend to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Putin’s chief of staff.
“These men bear the greatest responsibility for the death and destruction occurring in Ukraine,” Trudeau said.
“The world is witnessing the horrors of President Putin’s war of choice … It is an atrocity for Ukraine’s over 40 million innocent citizens, and for the world.”
Trudeau described the new measures as the third set of “severe, coordinated sanctions” implemented by Canada and its allies.
The United States, United Kingdom and European Union earlier on Friday announced sanctions against Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Canada will also impose new sanctions on Belarus, which hosted joint exercises with the Russian military and served as the launching pad for the invasion across Ukraine’s northern border. The new sanctions apply to 57 Belarusian individuals.
