A billion-dollar money laundering network operating across the UK purchased a bank in Kyrgyzstan to channel funds towards the Ukraine war, British police have said.

The network used criminal cash earned in the UK to help Russia evade Western sanctions.

It used hundreds of couriers in at least 28 UK towns and cities to collect the cash from drug dealing and firearms trafficking, among others.

The money was then quickly converted into cryptocurrency and moved around the world, Britain's National Crime Agency (NCA) said, as it shared an update on the latest phase of the UK-led "Operation Destabilise".

The international effort has now led to 128 arrests and the seizure of more than £25 million ($51 million) in cash and cryptocurrency in the UK, the NCA said.

In the past year, another 45 s

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