Sberbank, Russia’s largest state-owned bank, will be forced to close its office in the United Arab Emirates early next year, First Vice President Oleksandr Vedyakhin said on Monday, blaming pressure from sanctions, Reuters reported.

Large-scale Western sanctions were imposed against Russia’s financial system after Moscow deployed tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine on February 24. Sberbank is one of several large Russian banks that have been blocked from the SWIFT international payments system, and some senior executives have been personally affected by the sanctions.

“Unfortunately, in the context of sanctions restrictions, we are facing severe restrictions on our SberInvest Middle East office in Abu Dhabi, and unfortunately we are forced to close it in the first quarter of 2023,” Vedyakhin told reporters.

He said that Sberbank will continue to serve customers in the UAE market and is negotiating with Chinese regulators to open an office there.

“I hope that by the end of 2023 we will be able to open a branch in China, usually it takes one and a half to two years,” Vedyakhin said.

Sberbank’s European office in Vienna was closed in March by order of the European Central Bank after the ECB warned that the bank was at risk of bankruptcy.

Earlier this year, the Central Bank of Russia ordered financial institutions to limit information disclosure. Sberbank upped its reporting slightly this quarter, posting an 84.8% year-on-year drop in net profit for the January-November period, outperforming the broader sector, which was still loss-making as of November 1.

Vedyakhin refused to give forecasts for the whole year, but said that Sberbank is confident of profitability in December.