BRUSSELS, April 8. /TASS/. The European Union, as part of the fifth package of sanctions against Russia and Belarus, completely banned transactions and froze assets of "four key Russian banks" on its territory, the Council of the EU announced in a statement on Friday.

The names of the banks will be published later on Friday in the Official Journal of the EU. The sanctions will come into effect from the moment of this publication.

"A full transaction ban is imposed on four key Russian banks representing 23% of market share in the Russian banking sector. After being de-SWIFTed these banks will now be subject to an asset freeze, thereby being completely cut off from EU markets," according to the statement.

Earlier, the European Commission confirmed that VTB was among these four banks.

Earlier, the European Union disconnected seven Russian banks from the international system of interbank payments SWIFT, including VTB, Rossiya, Otkritie, Novikombank, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and VEB.RF.