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Some experts believe that sanctioning banks in the way the U.S. and allies have done so far is an effective way of freezing Russian assets. If there is no money to move, the messaging system becomes moot.

Also, European countries will likely face a negative impact on their own economies from SWIFT sanctions. Germany, in particular, had been a holdout due to its reliance on Russian gas and oil supplies.

The full consequences of such a sanction are hard to forecast, and it's unclear how many Russian banks are impacted. A total ban of Russia from SWIFT, which uses the dollar as the reserve currency, could weaken the dollar as a reserve currency and thus impact the global economic dominance of the U.S.

The senior White House official said Saturday officials are trying to minimize the impact of the latest restrictions on other economies.

For days, world leaders have debated what French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire reportedly referred to as a \"financial nuclear weapon\" Friday.

\"PHOTO:
Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: A man clears debris at a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, a suburb of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, Feb. 25, 2022.
>

EU finance ministers said in a statement Friday that \"all options are on the table\" as they weighed further financial sanctions against Russia. On Thursday, President Joe Biden said the sanctions on Russian banks may have \"more consequence than SWIFT,\" though also noted \"it is always an option.\"

On Saturday, prior to the White House's announcement on disconnecting \"selected\" Russian banks from SWIFT, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated in an address that Western countries had come to an agreement on SWIFT sanctions.

\"For Russia it will mean being cut off [from] normal financial civilization,\" he said. \"This is a big diplomatic victory. Russia will suffer billions upon billions of financial losses -- their price for invasion.\"

In a Facebook post earlier Saturday, Kuleba said the official decision had not yet been made, but the \"technical preparation for the decision and the implementation of this sanction has already begun.\"

Being cut off from SWIFT will make it harder for Russian entities to process transactions and do business beyond its borders. Russia does have its own messaging system that it could use in tandem with China, though it would not be easy to switch over from SWIFT.

ABC News' Zunaira Zaki, Justin Ryan Gomez and Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

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