What did the EU's SWIFT cut mean for Russian banks?
A look back at the sanctions step taken against three Russian lenders in mid-June 2022, as the war in Ukraine continued.
What happened to Russia's banking links in the days before 16 June 2022? The European Union, as part of another round of economic sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, removed three Russian lenders from the SWIFT international payments system. The step was reported on 14 June 2022.
The banks affected were Sberbank, described as Russia's largest bank, the Russian Agricultural Bank and the Credit Bank of Moscow. Their removal from SWIFT cut them off from the international payments network.
The measure was one of a series of sanctions aimed at Russia's economy while fighting continued in eastern Ukraine. On 13 June 2022, the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic said five people had been killed and 22 injured in an artillery attack on a marketplace in central Donetsk, and pro-Russian media accused NATO of supplying the munitions used.
