Kuleba calls on EU to ban Russia from SWIFT system

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on the EU to consider banning Russia from the global SWIFT payments system.

According to Ukrinform, Kuleba said in an interview with Reuters that he put forward this idea at a video conference with EU foreign ministers on April 19.

He said that such measures could be included in a package of new economic sanctions if Russia escalated the situation.

Western diplomacy had helped restrain Russia but everything "will depend on whether they're ready to ... follow their words with deeds," Kuleba said.

According to Kuleba, Kyiv currently has no new information indicating that Russia has decided to take new military action against Ukraine.

"And this is why the reaction of the West, the consolidated reaction of the West, is so important now, to prevent Putin ... from making that decision," he said.

Kuleba also said he asked Washington to supply "powerful means of electronic warfare" to counter Russia's capacity to jam Ukrainian communications when he met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week.

Russia continues to mass its troops near Ukraine's borders, while Russian media outlets have launched an information campaign of lies and provocations to discredit Ukraine and justify Russia's military intervention under the pretext of "protecting the Russian-speaking population."

op