What did the EU's SWIFT cut mean for Russian banks?
A retrospective on the sanctions step reported on 14 June 2022 and the Donetsk market attack reported a day earlier.
What did it mean when the European Union removed three major Russian lenders from SWIFT? By 15 June 2022, the measure had been reported as part of another round of economic sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The banks affected were Sberbank, described as Russia's largest bank, the Russian Agricultural Bank and the Credit Bank of Moscow. Cutting them off from the international payments system was reported on 14 June 2022 as one element of the wider package, which continued the pattern of economic pressure on Moscow.
A parallel track on the battlefield
The economic measures unfolded alongside continued fighting in the Battle of Donbas. On 13 June 2022, the Donetsk People's Republic said five people had been killed and 22 injured in an artillery attack on a marketplace in central Donetsk. Pro-Russian media accused NATO of supplying the munitions used in the attack.
The two reports, a day apart, showed the war being pursued on two fronts: through financial restrictions imposed by the EU, and through military action in eastern Ukraine, where rival claims about responsibility and weapons supplies accompanied the casualties.
