BRUSSELS/ LONDON: The G7 group of advanced economies and the European Union pledged to block transactions involving the Russian central bank’s gold reserves to hamper any Moscow bid to circumvent Western sanctions, the White House said Thursday.

The allies will work jointly “to blunt Russia’s ability to fund... (President Vladimir) Putin’s war, including by making clear that any transaction involving gold... is covered by existing sanctions”, the statement said.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on Thursday for the world to prevent Russia using its gold reserves, ahead of a NATO summit on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We need to do more and so we need to do more economically,” Johnson told LBC radio a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his devastating invasion of Ukraine.

“Can we do more to stop him using his gold reserves, for instance, in addition to his cash reserves? What can we do more to sanction SWIFT?” he said, referring to the international bank transfer system.

Johnson said that as well as increasing military support to Ukraine, “we’ve got to go further” economically. T, with the Russian economy already suffering under a welter of international sanctions.

“My message today in NATO will be that there are ways in which the world can continue to intensify the pressure on Putin,” he said.

“The more we do that now, the more pressure we apply now, particularly on things like gold, ... I believe the more we can shorten the war, shorten the slaughter in Ukraine,” he said.