Russia warns France for announcing economic war against it for Ukraine; 'Can turn real'

As France announces an economic war against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, the country responded on Tuesday. Taking to his official Twitter handle, Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev asked France to 'watch its tongue'. Citing 'human history', the Russia delegate warned France, saying 'that economic wars quite often turned into real ones'.

The warning came after French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said that Russia will face the collapse of its economy as a result of Western sanctions punishing Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. "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 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.

Russia-Ukraine war

For weeks, Moscow massed over 150,000 troops on Ukraine's borders in a bid to pressurise Western nations to not allow Ukraine to join NATO. Ultimately, on February 24, Kremlin, on the pretext of 'special military operation' and with an aim to 'demilitarise', ordered its armed forces to carry out a full-fledged invasion of Ukraine. Citing his reason as Kyiv's failure to establish 'talks' with Moscow, Putin directed the Russian Army to launch heavy missile strikes and explosions across the country. Ukraine has refused to surrender and continues to hold up resistance.

Meanwhile, delegations of both countries met for peace talks on the Ukraine-Belarus border on Monday, February 28. At the first round of discussions, which lasted for over five hours, both sides found some common points on which common positions can be found, Sputnik reported. The reports added that the delegations would come back for a second round that is scheduled to take place in a couple of days on the Belarusian-Polish border.

Even as the situation in Russia-invaded Ukraine deteriorates with vapour bombs being used, there are no plans of talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Kremlin's spokesperson said.