Ukraine offered to disconnect Russia from SWIFT

The initiative of the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was put forward during a videoconference on April 19, which Kuleba told Reuters on April 22.

“Mr. Kuleba believes that disconnecting from SWIFT may become part of a package of sanctions against Russia in the event of an escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine”, - Kommersant reports.

To counter the Russian side, Kiev turned to Washington with a request to provide Ukraine with powerful means of electronic warfare. This appeal was voiced by Kuleba at a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in Brussels.

In Ukraine, they reacted painfully to the message of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly, which Putin delivered on April 21. In it, Putin said that Moscow itself will determine where the red line runs "on a case-by-case basis".

“I understood President Putin's message as follows: “We will cross your "red lines", but you are not allowed to cross our "red lines", and we will determine where our "red lines" are”, - Kuleba said.

Earlier, Russian officials already assumed the possibility of disconnecting the Russian Federation from the global interbank system for exchanging information on SWIFT payments. There is currently no effective alternative to this system in Russia. As the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Pankin commented on the situation, when disconnecting from SWIFT, Russia will have to use other opportunities, but he did not specify which ones. An alternative to SWIFT in the Russian Federation has not yet been developed, however, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the development of an alternative to SWIFT is not yet underway, and consideration of possible partners for creating its own similar system is not yet underway.

A new round of aggravation of Russian-Ukrainian relations began in March against the background of escalation of violence in Donbass, where cases of ceasefire violations became more frequent. The parties to the conflict accuse each other of provocations. Russia has pulled troops to the border with Ukraine, and the President of Ukraine signed a law on the call of reservists.