At the end of last year, Ukraine and the United States forced European countries to prepare sanctions against Russia, so on February 24, when the war began, the EU was ready.
This was stated by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba in an interview for the Ukrainian Pravda outlet, which was published on March 18.
"And so, when the tragic day of the 24th came, they were ready. If you remember, back in November last year, I said that we needed a three-tier comprehensive package of Russian deterrence. And sanctions was one of the levels. As of the 24th we no longer had to develop anything. And they no longer had an argument: "Well, wait, we have procedures, we need to think, to consult." It was already lying on the table. And the first sanctions flew, actually, in automatic mode," Kuleba said.
The disconnection of Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system was the most difficult question: "Had we used instruments of classical diplomacy, we would not have received any disconnection of Russian banks from SWIFT," Kuleba said.
The Minister also stated that there were two crucial moments to get this result. The first was the speech of President Volodymyr Zelensky at the summit of European Union leaders, where he said they may be seeing him alive for the last time. The second point was an undiplomatic step — at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers Kuleba specifically named those who oppose Russiaʼs exclusion from SWIFT. "This is how we managed to disconnect Russian banks from SWIFT," Kuleba added.