Petrides: 'Cyprus has NOT objected to ANY EU sanctions including cutting Russia off Swift'

The Minister of Finance, Constantinos Petrides stated that reports concerning Cyprus' objection to imposing a ban on Russia from the SWIFT international payment system were false.

In an earlier Twitter post, the Finance Minister said that Cyprus has not objected to any EU sanctions, including cutting Russia off SWIFT.

Petrides said, "EU Leaders responded to the unlawful Russian military actions in Ukraine by economic sanctions on Russia. In the name of EU unity and solidarity to the Ukrainian people, Cyprus has NOT objected to ANY EU sanctions including cutting Russia off Swift. Everything is on the table".

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba in a post on Twitter confirmed today that Cyprus will not block an EU decision to ban Russia from the SWIFT international payment system.

“We did it. Cyprus confirmed it will not block the decision to ban Russia from SWIFT. Ukrainian diplomacy keeps working 24/7 to achieve important decisions and protect Ukraine from Russian invaders”, says Kuleba in his post.

The controversy stemmed from an earlier report on CNN stating that EU nations were split in the decision to ban Russia from SWIFT.  According to the report, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania voted in favor to include this in the sanctions package, while Germany, Italy, Hungary and Cyprus voted against due to their stronger economic ties to Russia.

[With information from CNN and CNA]