Nicola Sturgeon joins calls for Russia to be removed from global payment network

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has joined calls for Russia to be kicked out of Swift- the world’s main international payments network.

Her call came after EU leaders baulked at the decision, despite Vladimir Putin’s forces reaching Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. 

The under-siege country’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, was furious: “I will not be diplomatic on this,” he tweeted. “Everyone who now doubts whether Russia should be banned from Swift has to understand that the blood of innocent Ukrainian men, women and children will be on their hands too. BAN RUSSIA FROM SWIFT.”

Based in Belgium, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication is used by over 11,000 financial institutions to send secure payment orders. It's a vital part of the movement of funds to Russia’s oil and gas sector, which accounts for more than 40 per cent of the country's revenue.

However, it would also impact foreign banks and creditors that have business with the country.

Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden all back the measure, but Germany, Italy and Cyprus effectively vetoed the proposal. 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters on Thursday that “it’s very important that we decide on measures that have been prepared in recent weeks and reserve everything else for a situation where it is necessary to do other things as well”.

Responding to a report on Scholz's comments, the First Minister tweeted: "If the current situation doesn’t make the maximum possible sanctions - including exclusion from SWIFT - necessary and urgent, it’s hard to imagine what would. This is not a time for half measures."

In a video message released early on Friday morning, President Zelensky of Ukraine said his country “had been left alone”. 

“This morning we are defending our state alone,” he said. “Like yesterday, the world’s most powerful forces are watching from afar. Did yesterday’s sanctions convince Russia? We hear in our sky and see on our earth this was not enough.”

Ben Wallace said Putin had failed in his military objectives on the first day of fighting. 

“Our assessment as of this morning is that Russia has not taken any of its major objectives, in fact it is behind its hoped-for timetable,” Wallace told Sky News.

“They have lost over 450 personnel. One of the significant airports they were trying to capture with their elite Spetsnaz [special forces] has failed to be taken. In fact, the Ukrainians have taken it back.

“So, I think contrary to great Russian claims, and indeed President Putin’s sort of vision that somehow the Ukrainians would be liberated and would be flocking to his cause – he’s got that completely wrong. The Russian army has failed to deliver on day one its main objective.”

In a later exchange on BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, Wallace rejected pleas for the UK and the US to close air space above Ukraine. 

This, he said, would constitute a direct act of aggression towards Russia, which would prompt a “war across Europe”. 

Wallace said: “To do a no-fly zone I would have to put British fighter jets against Russian; Nato would have to declare war on Russia.”

He added: “I cannot and won’t trigger a European war but I will help Ukraine fight every street with every piece of equipment we can support them.”