By John McCrank

(Reuters) -U.S. payments firms Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc on Saturday said they were suspending operations in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, and that they would work with clients and partners to cease all transactions there.

Within days, all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside of the country and any Visa cards issued outside of Russia will no longer work within the country, the company said.

"We are compelled to act following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed," Al Kelly, chief executive officer of Visa, said in a statement.

U.S. President Joe Biden, in a call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed Visa's and Mastercard's decisions to suspend their operations in Russia, the White House said. [W1N2QI054]

"President Biden noted his administration is surging security, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine and is working closely with Congress to secure additional funding," a White House readout of the call added.

The move by the payments firms could mean more disruption for Russians who are bracing for an uncertain future of spiraling inflation, economic hardship and an even sharper squeeze on imported goods.

Unprecedented Western sanctions imposed on Russia have frozen much of the country's central bank's $640 billion in assets; barred several banks from global payments system SWIFT; and sent the rouble into free-fall, erasing a third of its value this week.

On Monday, Ukraine's central bank chief Kyrylo Shevchenko told Nikkei Asia https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Ukraine-urges-Visa-and-MasterCard-to-halt-Russian-cards2 the central bank and Zelenskiy urged Visa and MasterCard to halt transactions of their credit and debit cards issued by Russian banks to increase pressure on the Russian regime, the paper.

A growing number of financial and technology companies have suspended Russian operations. PayPal Holdings Inc, announced its decision earlier on Saturday.

ALTERNATIVE SYSTEM

Sberbank Rossii PAO, Russia's largest lender, said the moves by Visa and Mastercard would not affect users of the cards it issues in Russia, Tass news reported.

Sberbank said its customers would be able to withdraw cash, make transfers, pay both in offline stores and Russian internet stores because transactions in Russia pass through the domestic National Payment Card System which does not depend on foreign payment systems, according to Tass.