Report: Ukraine can mull sanctions against Sberbank on Wednesday

KIEV, Mar 14 (PRIME) -- Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko will convoke a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council on Wednesday to consider sanctions against the Ukrainian affiliate of Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov told channel ZIK in an interview broadcast late Monday.

“I think that Russian banks cannot operate in Ukraine in such conditions, state banks in particular. As far as I know, the president is to convoke the National Security and Defense Council on Wednesday, and I think that this issue will be solved then and will be considered. And I think that we will settle this issue lawfully,” Avakov said.

Sberbank started accepting passports issued by self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics on March 7. Kiev said it disagreed with this.

The bank said in a statement that its headquarters in Kiev were blocked with concrete bricks by Ukrainian nationalists on Monday.

“Sberbank is extremely concerned with the situation in Ukraine in connection with activities of nationalist organizations’ representatives. We saw 26 vandalism acts against offices and ATMs of Sberbank Ukraine over the last seven days, access to the headquarters in Kiev was blocked on March 13,” it said.

The bank has asked the Ukrainian police to intervene, it said.

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