WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia's two largest banks to open in annexed regions of Ukraine by July

Russia's two largest banks expect to open branches and offices in July in the regions of Ukraine that Moscow claimed to have annexed in 2022, the heads of Sberbank and VTB said on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin moved to annex Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in September 2022, following what Ukraine said were sham referendums. The move was condemned by many countries as illegal.

Russian forces only partly control the four regions.

State-owned Promsvyazbank, which has focused on state employees and the defence sector since it was bailed out by the central bank in 2017, has already been opening branches in the four regions, as Russia aims to provide civilians and soldiers with cheap credit and banking services.

"Within one and a half months our first 16 branches should open there," Sberbank CEO German Gref said in Russia's upper house of parliament on Tuesday. "So we will be present throughout the whole country's territory."

No. 2 lender VTB will open two offices in Luhansk in July and plans to start servicing clients in Donetsk and the port city of Mariupol in the Donetsk region by the end of the year, CEO Andrei Kostin said on Tuesday.

VTB's branches there will serve retail clients and small and medium-sized businesses.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Present-day territorial realities must be recognized to start dialogue on Ukraine - Moscow

Russia is open for negotiations on the Ukrainian conflict settlement, but they can be initiated only after the present-day territorial realities are recognized, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told TASS on Wednesday.

“Russia is open to holding a dialogue on Ukraine based on the consideration of our interests,” he said in an interview with TASS. “Our position regarding a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of the crisis remains unaltered.”

“In order for this to happen, first of all, its original causes must be addressed and modern geopolitical and territorial realities must be recognized,” he continued. “The West must stop pumping up the Ukrainian military with weapons and the Kiev regime must put an end to its military activities.”

The diplomat added that endless supplies of Western weapons to Ukraine “only drag out the conflict and lead to an increase in civilian casualties.”

According to him, Moscow is taking a notice of the growing risks of “weapons spreading around the world and ending up at the hands of terrorists and criminal groups.”

“Unfortunately, there is still a bunch of people in Europe and the United States, who pursue the goal of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia and are ready to blindly sacrifice the interests of their countries and peoples, pushing them to the edge of the abyss,” Galuzin added.

Reuters/Tass