BRUSSELS, February 28. /TASS/. The European Union has decided to disconnect several Russian banks from SWIFT, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday after an extraordinary virtual conference of EU top diplomats.

"We are excluding a certain number of Russian banks from SWIFT. <…> Such measure has to be taken in coordination with other countries. We have reached this agreement," he said.

He admitted, however, that the European Union cannot disconnect Russia from SWIFT completely as the Russian economy is interlinked with economies of other countries. "Certainly not to disconnect the financial system of a country, which is strongly interrelated with other countries and other economies. This cannot be done like this with the scissors overnight," he said. "We have learned something from the Iranian experience. And we believe that we have to keep possibility for the financial system to work in order for people to use it and to send money to their relatives and further."

"It is certainly necessary to continue exchanging with Russia, but don't worry, the degree of this connection is carefully calibrated in order to create the maximum damage to the financial system of Russia, while keeping the minimum level of interconnection with other financial systems," he pledged.

Apart from that, in his words, the European Union will freeze more than half of the Russian Central Bank’s financial assets. "The restrictive measures that will paralyze the assets of the Russian Central Bank [have been adopted]. More than half or about a half of all the financial reserves of the Russian Central Bank will be frozen. <…> This is going to be affecting a lot the financial system of Russia," Borrell said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on Thursday morning that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

When clarifying the unfolding developments, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.

Following this step, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and several other countries announced sanctions against Russia individuals and legal entities.