Ukraine asks Turkey, Kazakhstan, others to cut Russian payment system

In a statement, it said it had asked the banks to stop accepting Mir cards in their ATMs 

Ukraine's central bank on Wednesday asked Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan's central banks to suspend all transactions with cards from Russia's Mir payments system.

In a statement, it said it had asked the banks to stop accepting Mir cards in their ATMs and to make it impossible to use these cards in e-commerce and person-to-person transfers, Qazet.az reports.

"This appeal comes amid the urgent need to scale up global financial pressure on the aggressor country as it proceeds with its assault on Ukraine," the statement said.

Meanwhile, some Russian banks are planning to link Russia's Mir and China's UnionPay systems to provide payment options for purchases and cash withdrawals abroad, according to previous news.

Some Russian banks already operate China's UnionPay payment system, including Rosselkhozbank, Pochta Bank, Gazprombank, Bank St. Petersburg, Promsvyazbank, Russian Regional Development Bank, Primsotsbank, Zenit and Sovcombank, it added.

Sberbank, Alfa Bank and Tinkoff Bank are among the Russian banks considering the plan, according to Tass.

Visa, Mastercard and American Express earlier announced the suspension of their operations in Russia.