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Ukraine’s National Bank orders banks to halt operations in Donetsk and Luhansk regions

Ukrainian banks are required to suspend operations for servicing accounts, including bank card accounts, opened for businesses of all forms of ownership in the east of the country

© ITAR-TASS/Maxim Nikitin

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KIEV, November 25. /TASS/. The National Bank of Ukraine has ordered banks to suspend all financial operations on the territories uncontrolled by Kiev, the National Bank’s press office reported on Tuesday.

Ukrainian banks are required to suspend operations for servicing accounts, including bank card accounts, opened for businesses of all forms of ownership in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk Regions known as Donbass.

The National Bank of Ukraine said it was fulfilling the Ukrainian president’s decree on urgent measures to stabilize the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions.

The Ukrainian president’s decree has actually imposed economic blockade of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Regions. The decree specifically orders scrapping welfare benefit payments to Donbass residents.

The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Regions have said the Ukrainian president’s decree aimed at stifling Donbass economically contradicts the country’s Constitution.

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