KIEV (Sputnik) — Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has approved the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine's proposal to impose one-year sanctions on five subsidiaries of Russian state banks on Thursday.
"Poroshenko put into effect the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine's March 15, 2017, decision 'On the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions)' for a number of legal entities," a statement on the president's website reads.
The measures affect the Ukrainian subsidiaries of Sberbank, VTB, BM-Bank, Prominvestbank and VS Bank.
Ukrainian radicals blocked the entrance into the central office of Sberbank, locking over 400 employees inside on Monday and continued to hinder the access to the bank the following day, according to the Bank's address to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, published Tuesday. Besides, the Sberbank and Alfa-Bank's ATMs in Ukraine have been subjected to vandalism by the radicals.
On Thursday, the Kremlin spokesman said the actions against Russian banks' subsidiaries in Ukraine contradict international law, and Moscow will take all legitimate measures to protect them if necessary.
