EU member states branded a 'disgrace' by the bloc's ex-president Donald Tusk

EU member states were branded a ‘disgrace’ by the bloc’s former president yesterday after they rejected Boris Johnson’s call to eject Russia from the world’s biggest financial payments system.

Donald Tusk rounded on Germany, Italy, Hungary and others after they vetoed moves to kick Russia out of the Swift network that forms the bedrock of international trade.

Mr Tusk tweeted: ‘In this war everything is real: Putin’s madness and cruelty, Ukrainian victims, bombs falling on Kyiv. 

‘Only your sanctions are pretended. Those EU governments which blocked tough decisions (ie Germany, Hungary, Italy) have disgraced themselves.’

While EU leaders left a Swift ban out of a ‘tough’ package of sanctions – despite a plea from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky – Italy got an exemption for its luxury goods industry. 

Donald Tusk (pictured) rounded on Germany, Italy, Hungary and others after they vetoed moves to kick Russia out of the Swift network that forms the bedrock of international trade

Senior sources said the likes of Gucci loafers and designer handbags were not included in the export ban measures agreed late on Thursday, which focused largely on the high-tech, aviation and energy sectors.

One EU diplomat said Italy’s argument was that banning sales to Russian oligarchs ‘would have been largely symbolic’.

But senior Italian government sources reacted furiously, with one saying the country’s prime minister Mario Draghi ‘did not seek a carve-out on Italian luxury goods – that is categorically untrue’.

Mr Draghi also sparked a row with Mr Zelensky after he told Italian MPs the Ukrainian president had missed a planned phone call yesterday because he was ‘hiding somewhere’.

Mr Zelensky tweeted details of heavy fighting in his country, including deaths, before adding sarcastically: ‘Next time I’ll try to move the war schedule to talk to Mario Draghi at a specific time. Meanwhile, Ukraine continues to fight for its people.’

Mr Zelensky had urged European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to back a Swift ban on Russia, saying: ‘Not all possibilities for sanctions have been exhausted yet. The pressure on Russia must increase.’

Latvia’s deputy prime minister Artis Pabriks condemned nations that blocked the move, saying: ‘Some people in Europe are afraid of losing money while other people in Kyiv have to die.’

Boris Johnson (pictured) has been urging allies to back a Swift ban, saying only the harshest economic sanctions will have any effect on Vladimir Putin

Mr Johnson has been urging allies to back a Swift ban, saying only the harshest economic sanctions will have any effect on Vladimir Putin.

The Prime Minister raised the issue at a G7 summit on Thursday and again at a crisis summit of Nato leaders yesterday. 

He has also raised it in one-to-one talks with fellow leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, warning him: ‘Western inaction or under-reaction would have unthinkable consequences.’

A Government source said Mr Johnson ‘is going to keep pushing very strongly for this’.

And Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said yesterday Britain would ‘work all day’ to get the Swift system ‘turned off for Russia’.

EU leaders have said little publicly about their opposition to kicking Russia out of Swift. But diplomatic sources said several countries were concerned about disruption to gas supplies from Russia.

Diplomatic sources said US President Joe Biden sat on the fence on the issue at the G7 summit on Thursday. 

He cited EU concerns as the reason for not going ahead with a ban.