The EU Has Disconnected Seven Russian Banks from SWIFT

Russia continues its military invasion of Ukraine, launched on February 24 by Vladimir Putin’s order. He called this war “a special military operation in the Donbass”. DW monitors the events of Wednesday, March 2. On the seventh day of the war against Ukraine, Russian troops continue to strike at settlements in many regions of the neighboring country and to capture them. The Ukrainian army and territorial defense detachments are putting up stubborn resistance, causing significant damage to the aggressor. Western countries and international organizations are tightening sanctions against Russia.DW is following the developments on Wednesday, March 2 (Moscow time). ++15.40++ The European Union has banned the export of euro banknotes to Russia as part of the next sanctions package. Exceptions are personal use by individuals arriving in Russia, as well as by diplomatic missions and international organizations with legal immunity, it follows from the text of the official publication in the journal IS. ++15.23++ Japan is ready to accept refugees from Ukraine. This was announced on March 2 by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. According to Kishida, he informed Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki about this intention of Japan during a telephone conversation. He also told the President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier by phone, indicating that Tokyo would work closely with Berlin on the issue of support for Ukraine, Kishida added. ++15.12++ The European Union has suspended the broadcasting of Russian state media RT (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik. The relevant decision was made by the EU Council on Wednesday, March 2. It came into force on the same day. The ban on broadcasting will remain in effect “until the aggression against Ukraine is stopped and until the Russian Federation and related publications stop spreading disinformation and manipulating information directed against the EU and its member states,” the press service of the Council of the European Union said. RT English, RU, RT Germany, RT France, RT Spanish and Sputnik were banned. ++15.05++ It is still unknown when a new round of negotiations on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine will take place, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said. “Now we are ready for negotiations, we are ready for diplomacy, but we are by no means ready to accept any Russian ultimatums. It is still unknown when the new negotiations will take place,” the Ukrainian News agency quotes him as saying. Kuleba added that the requirements of the Russian side remain the same. Among other things, we are talking about the recognition of Crimea, annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014, as Russian, as well as Ukraine’s rejection of the prospect of joining NATO. ++14.55++ Ukraine denies the information of the Russian Defense Ministry about the capture of Kherson by Russian troops. The city of Nepal, our side continues to defend it, said Oleksiy Arestovich, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. Earlier, the UNIAN news agency reported that the mayor of Kherson, Igor Kolykhaev, asked for the creation of a “Green Corridor” for the removal of the wounded and dead from the city and the delivery of medicines and food. ++14.47++ To date, more than 5,300 refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Germany. At the same time, since there are no regular checks on the border between Germany and Poland, “it is likely that many more people have already reached Germany”, the official representative of the German Interior Ministry said on March 2. It is difficult to give an accurate forecast regarding the expected number of refugees from Ukraine at the moment due to the “very unclear” situation in this country, the ministry added. ++14.42++ The European Union has disconnected seven Russian banks – VTB, Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Rossiya, Sovcombank, VEB (Vnesheconombank) – from financial messaging systems, including SWIFT. This decision of the EU Council was published on Wednesday, March 2, in the Official Journal of the EU, after which it immediately entered into force. ++14.20++ At least 4 people were killed in the shelling of Kharkiv. “Currently, 10 people have been rescued from the rubble. Previously, 4 dead, 9 injured. 21 units of the State Emergency Service equipment and 90 personnel are working on site”, the head of the press service of the State Emergency Service in the Kharkiv region, Yevgeny Vasilenko, said in a statement. Now emergency rescue work in the administrative buildings continues. Nobel laureates against Russian invasion of Ukraine ++14.05++ 163 Nobel Prize laureates have issued an open letter against Russia’s war with Ukraine. The signatories compared the invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of a neighboring state with the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland in 1939 and on the Soviet Union in 1941. “Together we condemn these military actions and President Putin's denial of the very legitimacy of Ukraine’s existence. The Russian invasion tarnished Russia’s international reputation for decades to come. It will become an obstacle to its economic development and a source of difficulties for its population,” the scientists pointed out. ++14.00++ The Russian delegation will wait for the Ukrainian delegation on Wednesday afternoon to continue negotiations, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation. “This afternoon, in the late afternoon, our delegation will be on the spot waiting for the Ukrainian negotiators. Our delegation will be ready to continue the conversation tonight”, Peskov said. At the same time, he did not specify the place of negotiations. “I don’t want to speak ahead of time,” Peskov said. Earlier, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who headed the Russian delegation at the first round of negotiations, said that the next meeting would be held on the Polish-Belarusian border. DW