French finance minister Bruno Le Maire declared an "all-out economic and financial war" against Russia to bring down the its economy as punishment for invading Ukraine, before rowing back on language he later said was inappropriate, reports Reuters.
The United States and its allies have imposed sanctions on Russia's central bank, oligarchs and officials, including President Vladimir Putin himself, and barred some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system.
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire described the sanctions packages as proving "extremely effective".
"We're waging an all-out economic and financial war on Russia," Le Maire told France Info radio. "We will cause the collapse of the Russian economy."
Le Maire later told French news agency AFP he had misspoken and that the term "war" was not compatible with France's efforts to de-escalate tensions surrounding the Ukraine conflict.