The Board of Governors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has formally approved the application of Article 8.3 of the agreement on establishing the bank to stop Russia and Belarus from accessing the bank's resources, Artem Shevalev, a member of the bank's board of directors from Ukraine, said on Monday.

"The absolute majority of the bank's shareholder countries, which represents 94.85% (!!!) of votes in the bank's capital, backed the decision," he wrote on Facebook.

Shevalev said that for the first time in the history of the EBRD, managers made this step.

"And the EBRD became the first international organization to make such a decision," Shevalev added.

He thanked Minister of Finance Serhiy Marchenko, Governor of the NBU Kyrylo Shevchenko and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and their team for their assistance in making such a decision.

As reported, the EBRD notified on March 28 that it was in the process of closing offices in Moscow and Minsk. The Bank then reiterated its support for Ukraine and recalled that it had already agreed on an initial EUR 2 billion assistance package for Ukraine and a number of other states that were affected by the war.

The EBRD has not invested in new projects in Russia since 2014, but was quite active in Belarus until the middle of 2021.