Britain has imposed a travel ban and asset freezes on seven more wealthy Russians, including Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Premier League soccer club Chelsea.

The government said that Mr Abramovich's assets — including Premier League club Chelsea — had been frozen.

Mr Abramovich, 55, has also been banned from visiting the UK and is barred from transactions with UK individuals and businesses.

The government said it would allow Chelsea to continue playing matches despite the sanctions being imposed.

Mr Abramovich had put the club up for sale, but under the asset freeze, that process must be halted.

Sports Minister Nadine Dorries said the UK government had issued a special licence to enable Chelsea to play fixtures, pay staff and enable their current season ticket holders — of which there are around 30,000 — to attend matches.

Ms Dorries said this was so the measures would not harm the reigning European and club world champions.

"I know this brings some uncertainty, but the government will work with the league and clubs to keep football being played while ensuring sanctions hit those intended," she said on Twitter.

The club will, however, be unable to sell any other match day tickets for their 41,837-capacity Stamford Bridge Stadium.

The government said the licence would be kept under review.

The BBC reported that the Premier League had been told of the measures just 15 minutes before the announcement.

Mr Abramovich said last week he was trying to sell Chelsea as the threat of sanctions loomed.

In total, Britain said the seven figures, added to the sanctions list because of their connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin, had a collective net worth of 15 billion pounds ($26.91 billion).

Mr Abramovich was sanctioned due to his decades-long relationship with the Russian leader and allegations that he has obtained financial benefits from the Russian government.

In a statement put out by the UK Treasury, Mr Abramovich, through his 29 per cent ownership of manufacturing and mining company Evraz PLC, is accused of supplying steel to the Russian military, which could have been used to manufacture tanks.

"[Mr] Abramovich has received preferential treatment and concessions from [Mr] Putin and the government of Russia," the statement read.

"Which includes potentially supplying steel to the Russian military, which may have been used in the production of tanks."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the sanctions on Mr Abramovich.

"There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin's vicious assault on Ukraine," Mr Johnson said.

"We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies."

There have been growing calls from British MPs for action to be taken against Mr Abramovich and other Russian oligarchs, with criticism that Mr Johnson's government was not moving fast enough compared to the European Union and the United States.

The others added to the list were Oleg Deripaska, who has stakes in En+ Group, Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of Bank Rossiya, Alexei Miller, the chief executive of energy company Gazprom, and Nikolai Tokarev, the president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft.

The sanctions are being imposed in response to Russia's invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

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