WASHINGTON —The United States, European allies and Canada agreed Saturday to remove Russia from the interbank messaging system, SWIFT.

In a joint statement, the world powers declared that the significant countermeasure would be taken.

Moscow has been excluded from SWIFT. This stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It means Russian banks can’t securely communicate with foreign banks. Following developments in Iran’s nuclear program, SWIFT removed Iran from its database.

SWIFT (Swift International Financial Transfer) is an independent entity based in Belgium. It serves as an internal messaging platform between banks and financial institutions across more than 11,000 countries and territories.

This stunning announcement comes after multiple rounds of combined sanctions against Russia following its unprovoked attack on Ukraine.

The United States, along with the United Kingdom of the European Union, announced on Friday unprecedented sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

This is important breaking news. Stay tuned for new updates.