The United States and the European Union issued a joint statement on Saturday, vowing to remove some Russian banks from the SWIFT global banking system and introduce sanctions against the Bank of Russia.
"We commit to ensuring that selected Russian banks are removed from the SWIFT messaging system. This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system and harm their ability to operate globally," the US and the EU stated. "We commit to imposing restrictive measures that will prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves in ways that undermine the impact of our sanctions," they added.
Furthermore, the US and the EU promised to act against people and entities "who facilitate the war in Ukraine" and the Russian government's "harmful" activities.