OREANDA-NEWS The Mastercard international payment system has disconnected several Russian banks that have been sanctioned by the United States from their services. This was announced in an official statement by the head of the company, Michael Mibach. He stressed that Mastercard will continue to work with regulators in order not to violate the terms of the new restrictive measures. Sanctions were previously imposed against VTB, Otkritie, Sovcombank, Promsvyazbank and Novikombank.

The cards of these banks will not work abroad and when paying in foreign online stores. This became known on February 26, when the company sent a notification to the banks.

In Russia, the cards of these banks will continue to be accepted, as they are processed internally by the National Payment Card System (NSPK).

"As a result of the sanctions orders, we have blocked several financial institutions in the Mastercard payment network," the payment system said in a new statement.

Mibakh said that the international company is now actively working in the humanitarian field, helping those in need and financing charitable organizations.

The head of Mastercard stressed that the "invasion of the Russian armed forces" has become destructive for the people of Ukraine.

Earlier, the European Union imposed a new package of sanctions due to the special operation of the Russian army in Ukraine. Businessmen, officials, military personnel and public figures of Russia got into it. In total, 26 Russians were blacklisted. Among them are the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, the heads of Rosneft and Transneft Igor Sechin and Nikolai Tokarev, as well as the chairman of Promsvyazbank (PSB) Peter Fradkov.

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a military operation in Ukraine. He said that Russia "will strive for the demilitarization and denazification" of the country.