The credit card companies, Visa and Mastercard have announced the suspension of their services, financial transactions with their cards, in Russia in response to the country's military invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

According to an official note, payments with Visa cards issued in Russia will not be accepted outside the country and cards issued in other countries will not be valid on Russian territory. The end of operations should be completed in the next few days.

#BREAKING Visa, Mastercard say they have suspended operations in Russia pic.twitter.com/pls75cXzv7

- AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 5, 2022

"We are compelled to act following Russia's invasion of Ukraine [...] We regret the impact this will have on our valued colleagues and the customers, partners, merchants and cardholders we serve in Russia" said Visa President Al Kelly.

Mastercard will stop accepting cards from its network issued by Russian banks, and cards issued elsewhere will also not be accepted at Russian merchants and ATMs, according to reports on Saturday.

"Noting the unprecedented nature of the current conflict and the climate of economic uncertainty, we have decided to suspend our network services in Russia," reads the Mastercard document, which argues the devastating scale of the conflict.

The blockades come after the two American companies had already removed Russian financial institutions from their network earlier this month in compliance with financial embargoes set by the U.S. government.