BRUSSELS, February 25. /TASS/. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday evaded a question on the prospect of cutting Russia off from SWIFT, a messaging system used by banks to exchange money transfer orders and information.

"It’s important that we pass exactly the measures that were prepared in recent weeks, and we will leave the rest for a situation when other things will need to be done," he said upon arriving at a European Council meeting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, amid a serious escalation of the situation in Donbass, on February 21 recognized the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics as independent. Treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance were signed with their leaders. Russia recognized the republics’ borders that are enshrined in their constitutions, which are the administrative borders of the Donets and Lugansk regions as of the start of 2014.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said 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. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure by precision strikes. There are no threats to the civilian population, the ministry said.