Russia's second-largest bank VTB, one of the first banks to be excluded from the SWIFT global payments system over the Ukraine offensive, on Wednesday reported a loss of 612.6 billion rubles ($7.7 billion) for 2022.

"In 2022 the VTB group faced unprecedented hardships and challenges... We were the first target for the maximum sanctions possible, which led to significant losses," the bank's chief financial officer Dmitry Pianov said in a statement.