The United States and the European Union, together with Great Britain and Canada, dump the 'nuclear option' and exclude "selected Russian banks" from the Swift, the circulatory system of international financial transactions.
In a new wave of draconian measures, the Western powers are also imposing sanctions on the Russian Central Bank so that the reserves at its disposal are unable to mitigate the effects of the sanctions decided.
And they are launching a squeeze on the so-called 'golden passports', effectively targeting the oligarchs, as well as stepping up the battle against disinformation.
In a joint note, the allies "condemn the war chosen" by Vladimir Putin and reaffirm their support for the Ukrainian government and population engaged in the "heroic effort to resist the Russian invasion".
The war initiated by Putin represents "an assault on fundamental international norms and those that have prevailed since the Second World War.
We will make sure that this war is a strategic failure for Putin," the note continues, in which Western leaders pledge to ". continue to impose costs on Russia to further isolate it from financial systems and our economies.
In detail, the allies undertake to ensure that "selected Russian banks are removed from Swift. This will ensure that these banks are disconnected from the international financial system".
The exclusion of Russia from the Swift was until a few days ago a distant hypothesis, considered a nuclear option.
An acronym for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, Swift is a secure, universally accepted messaging system, which is the standard for quickly closing payments for goods, services, raw materials, energy products.
Orders, currency exchanges, sales and purchases pass through there, with over 11,000 participating companies and financial institutions, a presence in over 200 countries and a traffic of 42 million messages per day.
Among other measures is the commitment to "impose restrictive measures that prevent the Russian Central Bank from deploying its international reserves" to mitigate the effect of sanctions, the joint note from Western leaders explains.
According to some estimates, in the Central Bank there are 643 billion dollars of reserves that President Vladimir Putin accumulated before the planned invasion of Ukraine.
"We pledge to take action against the people and entities that facilitate war in Ukraine. In particular we pledge to take measures that limit so-called golden passports, which allow rich Russians linked" to Moscow "to become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems ", continues the note in which Western allies also pledge to launch a" transatlantic task force to ensure the effective implementation of financial sanctions by identifying and freezing the assets of individuals and companies on which sanctions have been imposed ".
Western leaders then warn: "We are with the Ukrainian people in this dark moment. We are ready to take other measures."