EU not ruling out cutting off Russia from SWIFT, Luxembourg says

BERLIN

The EU is not ruling out removing Russia from the SWIFT international banking system, Luxembourg’s foreign minister said on Friday.

“I believe that the SWIFT option remains on the table,” Jean Asselborn told German public broadcaster ZDF, ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

“If the bombardment of Kyiv continues, if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has to fear for his life, then everything will come to the table,” he said.

Asselborn also noted that they will carefully examine the planned sanctions to see whether they will make the desired impact on the Russian economy and whether they may have unintended consequences.

Russia’s military assault on Ukraine entered its second day on Friday, with the latest reports indicating that Russian troops were heading toward the capital Kyiv from several directions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the military intervention on Thursday, just days after recognizing two separatist-held enclaves in eastern Ukraine.

He claimed that Moscow had no plan to occupy the neighboring country, but wanted to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, more than 130 people, including civilians, were killed on the first day of the military intervention.