Foreign Secretary Liz Truss today said the West must hit the Russian economy even harder with sanctions. The West has frozen more than $350bn (£266bn) of Russia’s $604bn (£461bn) in foreign currency reserves. Ms Truss said during a visit to Poland: “The only way to end this war is for Vladimir Putin to lose in Ukraine. “Although Russian troops were defeated in their initial assault on kyiv, there was no change in their intent and ambition.

“We see Putin’s forces setting their sights on eastern and southern Ukraine, with the same reckless disregard for civilian lives and national identity.”

The UK and other Western countries hope the sanctions will force Russia to back down in Ukraine.

Maximillian Hess, a Central Asia researcher in the Eurasia Program at the nonprofit Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CNBC last month that the Russian ruble could collapse entirely as a result of these measures.

He said: “The problem you have now is that we’re basically in a spiral where we don’t know how many unrealized losses there are to realize.

“So we still cannot rule out that the ruble could collapse. collapse.”

Nor the exchange of rubles for dollars in a bank, which is prohibited by the Kremlin.

Since the invasion of Ukraine began, more than 300 of the world’s most iconic brands have voluntarily shut down or scaled back operations.

Among them are global banks like Goldman Sachs, the Big Four accounting firms, and consumer brands like Starbucks and Ford.

Mr. Hess added: “A lot of these companies that are pulling out of Russia are not doing so for reputational reasons.

“It’s because they know they won’t be able to process payments and transfer money in and out of the country for the foreseeable future,”

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently estimated that the economies of Russia and Ukraine will shrink by 10% and 20% respectively in 2022.

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The London-based lender warned on Thursday that the war had triggered “the biggest supply shock since at least the early 1970s” and would have a severe effect on economies far beyond the immediate conflict zone.

The EBRD added: “Sanctions against Russia are likely to remain for the foreseeable future, condemning the Russian economy to stagnation in 2023, with negative spillover effects for a number of neighboring countries in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

“With so much uncertainty, the bank intends to produce a further forecast within the next two months, taking further developments into account.”