The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has asked law enforcement agencies to respond to the continued blocking of work of Ukrainian banks with Russian state capital, carried out by "aggressively-minded groups of people," as this reduces confidence in the Ukrainian banking system and jeopardizes its stability, NBU Deputy Head Yekateryna Rozhkova has said.

"The National Bank draws the attention of law enforcers to the need to protect more than 1.7 billion Ukrainian depositors who entrusted more than UAH 21 billion to the banking system and now have no access to these funds and the ability to freely use them," she said at a briefing in Kyiv.

According to her, manifestations of vandalism towards banking institutions today discredit confidence in the banking system in the eyes of clients, threaten financial stability and affect Ukraine's image in the international arena.

"As the state that is now building democracy, we must ensure the possibility of leaving the Ukrainian market in a civilized way for Ukrainian banks with state-owned Russian capital," the banker said.