What did the EU's SWIFT cut mean on 15 June 2022?
A look back at the sanctions step reported on 14 June 2022, as the economic dimension of the war with Russia widened.
What did it mean for Russia's financial system when the European Union moved against three of its banks? On 15 June 2022, the question was still fresh: a day earlier, on 14 June 2022, the EU had removed Sberbank, the Russian Agricultural Bank and the Credit Bank of Moscow from the SWIFT international payments system.
Sberbank is Russia's largest bank. The step was part of another round of economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, adding to measures already taken.
The economic pressure ran alongside continuing fighting. On 13 June 2022, the Donetsk People's Republic said five people had been killed and 22 others injured in an artillery attack on a marketplace in central Donetsk. Pro-Russian media accused NATO of supplying the munitions used in the attack.
Together, the two reports show how sanctions and the battlefield were being reported side by side in mid-June 2022, during the Battle of Donbas.
