On Monday, the Russian ruble fell around 29% against USD as the markets evaluated the effects of Russian sanctions amid growing opposition to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to Factset data, the ruble traded as low as 119 dollars per dollar when offshore trading began in the morning Asia hours. This was down from almost 84 dollars the day before.

This was at a time when the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows no signs of abating.

Vladimir Putin was inaugurated as the Russian President on Sunday after days of aerial, land and sea assaults against Ukraine. put his country’s nuclear deterrence forces on high alert.

Russia’s incursion into Ukraine is continuing, however Ukraine maintains its control over Kyiv (its capital) and Kharkiv (2nd-largest). Russian military vehicles arrived in Kharkiv this Sunday. There are reports that fighting broke out and residents were warned to shelter.

Last week, President Joe Biden responded with several rounds sanctions to Russian banks. They were aimed at the sovereign debt of Russia and Putin. 

The U.S. and its European allies, Canada, and other countries, agreed over the weekend to disconnect key Russian banks form the interbank messaging network, SWIFT. This connects more that 11,000 financial institutions and banks in nearly 200 countries and territories.