Next week will mark the fifth month of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine after the invasion or what the Russian calls ‘special operation’ set out on February 24, 2022, and one of the reasons that the war had been dragged on this long is because of the U.S. banks still have yet to cut ties with Russia as claimed by Ukraine’s Economic advisor to the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Oleg Ustenko.
In a letter to the U.S. and European banks, including JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole etc., Zelenskyy’s advisor asked international financial firms to stop financing the Moscow companies.
According to an investigative report by the FT, some of the firms that these banks claimed by Ukraine had association with traded in Russian oil and sold shares in Russian state-backed oil and gas groups Gazprom and Rosneft.
The letter stated that by doing business with the Russian companies implied that they are financing the ongoing war, which in this case is favorable to Russia, and this would prolong the war.
In the remark of the letter, Oleg Ustenko stated that Ukraine intends to sue the banks at the International Criminal Court (ICC) once the war ends.
