The next round of European Union sanctions will exclude more Russian banks from the SWIFT system and likely ban Russian ships from entering ports as well as some major Russian imports, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said today.
"There will be more Russian banks taken out of the SWIFT system. I suspect all Russian-flagged ships will be banned from entering EU ports", Simon Coveney said on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne.
"I also suspect that we'll be banning other imports like steel, timber, aluminum and possibly coal as well," Mr Coveney added.
"These are big decisions by the European Union that are going to have an impact on Ireland and EU countries. But their decisions that need to be taken to send very, very strong messages to Russia that this madness must stop," he said.
The EU said on Wednesday it was excluding seven Russian banks from SWIFT, but stopped short of including those handling energy payments, including Sberbank, Russia's largest lender, and Gazprombank.
