From closed airspace to frozen assets and oil and luxury goods bans, Western countries have announced increasingly severe economic sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Here is an overview: Russia is the world’s largest producer of natural gas and second-largest producer of oil. The United States has announced a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas while Britain plans to phase out crude imports from the country by the end of this year.
Prior to the announcements, energy giant Shell said it would immediately stop Russian oil purchases.
The European Union, which is heavily dependent upon Russian energy, has announced a goal of cutting gas imports from Russia by two thirds by the end of this year. It aims for the bloc could become fully independent of Russian gas, oil and coal by 2030.
Germany has already halted the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, a key conduit designed to increase deliveries of Russian gas to Germany.
Russian gas giant Gazprom has been blocked from raising funds on Western financial markets.
The West has targeted the financial sector to limit Russia’s capacity to fund the war.
In a major blow to the Russian financial system, the European Union has cut seven Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, which allows banks to communicate rapidly and securely about transactions.
Concerned by sanctions, Russia’s largest lender Sberbank has said it was leaving the European market. The United States and the EU have directly targeted Russia’s central bank, with a ban on all transactions with the institution.
The sanction effectively freezes the assets held by the Russian central bank in the US, limiting its ability to use its large foreign exchange reserves to buy rubles and support the value of its currency. Canada, Japan and South Korea have announced a similar ban.
The ruble has fallen dramatically, forcing the Russian central bank to almost double its key interest rate. US credit card giants Visa, Mastercard and American Express also said they were blocking Russian banks from their payment networks. The airline sector was one of the first to be affected by the economic fallout from the Ukrainian conflict. Russian carrier Aeroflot was banned from the airspace of the entire EU, the United Kingdom and Canada, forcing it to suspend flights to these destinations.
In retaliation, Russia has banned airlines from those same countries from flying over its territory. The entire Russian aviation industry has been targeted. The EU and Canada have banned the export of aircraft, parts and equipment from the aviation and space industries to Russia.