Ukraine: West must act now to counter Russian offensive

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine urged Western allies to show they were prepared to punish Moscow with new sanctions, including kicking Russia out of the global SWIFT payments system, to deter the Kremlin from resorting to more military force against Ukraine.

In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said while Kyiv had no new information indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided to take new military action against Ukraine, it was important for the West to act now to prevent that from happening.

Ukraine is trying to shore up international support in its standoff with Moscow over a build-up of Russian troops on its eastern border and in Crimea, which it annexed from Kyiv in 2014.

“I have no information to state that the decision to launch a military operation against Ukraine has already been taken. So it can go in either direction now,” Kuleba said.

“And this is why the reaction of the West, the consolidated reaction of the West, is so important now, to prevent Putin... from making that decision.”

Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for a collapse in the ceasefire in the eastern Donbass region, where Ukrainian troops have battled Russian-backed forces in a conflict Kyiv says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.

Kuleba said he asked Washington to supply “powerful means of electronic warfare” to counter Russia’s capacity to jam Ukrainian communications when he met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week.

He also revealed he had urged a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on Monday to consider banning Russia from SWIFT as part of a package of new economic sanctions they should be prepared to impose if Russia escalated the situation.

“If Russia decides to launch another wave of its open military aggression against Ukraine, a new round of sectoral sanctions – including for example banning Russia from SWIFT and these kinds of things – should be immediately imposed on it,” he said.

Western diplomacy had helped restrain Russia but everything “will depend on whether they’re ready to ... follow their words with deeds,” Kuleba said.