Visa and MasterCard, two international payment systems, have announced that they will suspend operations in Russia from the night of March 6.

The companies have announced that they have decided to withdraw from the Visa and MasterCard payment system in Russia due to the military operation in Ukraine.

Previously, Visa and MasterCard had stopped working with banks under US SDN sanctions (VTB, Otkritie, Promsvyazbank, Sovcombank and Novikombank) and the new decision would affect all banks in the country as well as all credit card holders.

However, inside Russia, Visa and MasterCard cards can still be used to pay for local transactions until their expiration date.

People will also be able to withdraw money and pay for goods and services on Russian websites.