Ukraine asks Turkey, Kazakhstan and others to refuse Russian payment system Mir

LVIV, Ukraine - Ukraine's central bank on Wednesday asked central banks in Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Turkey and Kyrgyzstan to suspend all transactions with cards of 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.

"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.