Russia will face the collapse of its economy as a result of Western sanctions punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday.
The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia's central bank, its top businesses, oligarchs and officials, including President Vladimir Putin himself, and barred some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system.
"We are going to deliver a total economic and financial war against Russia," Le Maire told France Info radio. "We are going to provoke the collapse of the Russian economy."
The Russian rouble fell steeply on Monday, although the currency clawed back a bit of ground on Tuesday.
Ukraine authorities said on Tuesday that more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen were killed by a Russian rocket attack and dozens of civilians had died in "barbaric" shelling, as a huge Russian military convoy approached the capital Kyiv.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday.
