On Saturday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that his government is approving the transfer of anti-tank weapons to the Ukrainian military, backing away from his insistence that only non-lethal aid, such as hard hats, be provided.
In the same time, in a tweet postGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock and Economy Minister Robert Habeck acknowledged that the German government is now moving from opposing the SWIFT ban to supporting a narrowly targeted ban.
“We are working intensively on how to limit the collateral damage from the #SWIFT disconnect so that it affects the right people,” they wrote. “We need a purposeful and functional limitation of SWIFT.”
European officials said they were in lengthy, sometimes tense negotiations with US and British officials who insisted on cutting off supplies as soon as the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
Understand Russia’s attack on Ukraine
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What is at the heart of this invasion? Russia considers Ukraine a part his natural sphere of influence, and is unnerved by Ukraine’s proximity to the West and the prospect of Ukraine joining NATO or the European Union. Although Ukraine is not part of either, it receives financial and military assistance from the US and Europe.
Are these frictions just beginning now? Antagonism between the two countries has simmered since 2014, when Russian troops crossed into Ukraine after an uprising in Ukraine replaced a Russian-friendly president with a pro-Western government. Then, Russia annexed Crimea and inspired separatist movement in the east. A ceasefire was signed in 2015but fighting continued.
How did Ukraine react? February 23, Ukraine declared a state of emergency for 30 days. how cyberattacks disabled government institutions. After the attacks began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky martial law declared. The Foreign Minister called the attacks a “full-scale invasion” and called on the world to “stop Putin.”
But even some US officials had doubts about Russia’s complete secession. Among other things, they feared that it could strengthen alternatives to the SWIFT system being developed by Russia and China. Over time, this could undermine the ability of the United States to track and control payments.
Before Saturday’s announcement, US and EU leaders discussed how many and which Russian institutions to block, according to three European diplomats and another person familiar with the matter. Officials discussed possible side effects and unintended consequences of targeted restrictions.
The announcement did not specify which banks would be cut off from SWIFT.
SWIFT, the Belgian messaging service, officially known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, connects over 11,000 financial institutions around the world. It does not store or transfer funds, but allows banks and financial institutions to notify each other of upcoming transactions.