The Latest Breaking News from SWIFT

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Saturday French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had supported cutting off Russia from the global SWIFT payment system in a phone conversation with him.

Western partners are moving closer to halting Russia's access to the SWIFT global interbank payments system, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said on Saturday.

The US, UK and EU are now directly targeting the Russian leader with sanctions, while Australia targets eight of the country's oligarchs.

Western allies announced sweeping new sanctions against Moscow on Saturday, including kicking key Russian banks off the main global payments system, as a defiant President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces were repelling Russian troops advancing on Kyiv.

Canada, the United States, Britain and the European Union on Friday said they could act to exclude Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payments system in a further round of sanctions aimed at halting Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Some of Wall Street’s largest banks told lawmakers and the Biden administration that kicking Russia off the SWIFT financial-messaging system would have far-reaching fallout that could hurt the global economy and undermine the purpose of the penalties, people familiar with the matter said.

The Biden administration, in extraordinary and rapid cooperation with allies over a period of three days, has doubled down on its vow to impose “severe sanctions” against Russia for its military aggression against Ukraine.

The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Russia in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine, targeting major banks and members of the elite coupled with new export control measures.

Ukraine news from February 26: UN says internal displacement also growing as Ukraine forces battle all-round assault.

The European Union could exclude Russia from the SWIFT global interbank payments system in a fresh round of sanctions, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said on Friday.

The package of banking sanctions that the European Union is imposing will hit Russian President Vladimir Putin's government harder than excluding Russia from the SWIFT payments system, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.