Washington: US President Joe Biden announced severe economic sanctions against Russia’s invasion on Ukraine. Speaking to the media persons at White House on Thursday Biden said that he had no plans to talk with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

He also conceded a lack of Western unity for enacting an even tougher measure. He said four major banks would be hit with sanctions by Western powers and that export controls on sensitive components would cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports. This is going to impose severe cost on the Russian economy, both immediately and over time, said US President.

Today, I authorized a new round of sanctions and limitations in response to Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine.

We have purposefully designed these sanctions to maximize the long-term impact on Russia – and to minimize the impact on the United States. pic.twitter.com/wM0kEBcZba

— President Biden (@POTUS) February 25, 2022

The measures, on top of a raft of other sanctions already announced this week, will make Putin a pariah on the international stage, he said. Any nation that countenances Russia’s naked aggression against Ukraine will be stained by association, he added. Biden confirmed that for now there was no attempt to put sanctions directly on Putin, who is widely reported to have amassed a huge, secret fortune during his two decades in power.

He also said that a much talked about move to cut Russia from the SWIFT international payments system essentially crippling its banking sector was not happening. Ukraine pleaded for yanking Russia from SWIFT on Thursday, but Biden revealed that the Western coalition could not come to an agreement. Biden spoke to the nation after having attended a virtual, closed door meeting which lasted an hour and 10 minutes with the G-7.

The groups of rich Western democracies are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US said it was standing firm against Russia’s threat to the rules-based international order. G7 leaders agreed to move forward on devastating packages of sanctions and other economic measures to hold Russia to account. We stand with the brave people of Ukraine, Biden said in a tweet.

In a joint statement, G-7 industrial powers also said they were ready to act to minimize disruptions to world energy markets as a result of Moscow’s assault on Ukraine and with sanctions already targeting a major pipeline from heavyweight energy producer Russia. Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Britain was freezing the UK assets of Russian titans in banking and arms manufacturing, sanctioning five more oligarchs, and banning Aeroflot.

Germany’s Vice Chancellor, Robert Habeck, said that the Western sanctions aimed to cut off the Russian economy from industrial progress and attack and freeze assets and financial holdings, and dramatically limit access to the European and American markets.