We, the leaders of the European Commission, France, Germany,
Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States condemn
Putin's war of choice and attacks on the sovereign nation and
people of Ukraine. We stand with the Ukrainian government and the
Ukrainian people in their heroic efforts to resist Russia's
invasion. Russia's war represents an assault on fundamental
international rules and norms that have prevailed since the
Second World War, which we are committed to defending. We will
hold Russia to account and collectively ensure that this war is a
strategic failure for Putin.
This past week, alongside our diplomatic efforts and collective
work to defend our own borders and to assist the Ukrainian
government and people in their fight, we, as well as our other
allies and partners around the world, imposed severe measures on
key Russian institutions and banks, and on the architects of this
war, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As Russian forces unleash their assault on Kyiv and other
Ukrainian cities, we are resolved to continue imposing costs on
Russia that will further isolate Russia from the international
financial system and our economies. We will implement these
measures within the coming days.
Specifically, we commit to undertake the following measures:
First, 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.
Second, 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.
Third, we commit to acting against the people and entities who
facilitate the war in Ukraine and the harmful activities of the
Russian government. Specifically, we commit to taking measures to
limit the sale of citizenship—so called golden passports—that let
wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become
citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial
systems.
Fourth, we commit to launching this coming week a transatlantic
task force that will ensure the effective implementation of our
financial sanctions by identifying and freezing the assets of
sanctioned individuals and companies that exist within our
jurisdictions. As a part of this effort we are committed to
employing sanctions and other financial and enforcement measures
on additional Russian officials and elites close to the Russian
government, as well as their families, and their enablers to
identify and freeze the assets they hold in our jurisdictions. We
will also engage other governments and work to detect and disrupt
the movement of ill-gotten gains, and to deny these individuals
the ability to hide their assets in jurisdictions across the
world.
Finally, we will step up or coordination against disinformation
and other forms of hybrid warfare.
We stand with the Ukrainian people in this dark hour. Even beyond
the measures we are announcing today, we are prepared to take
further measures to hold Russia to account for its attack on
Ukraine.
