Russians dump the ruble as Moscow's exchange reopens for trade after pause amid Ukraine war

• The Russian ruble sank after the Moscow exchange reopened trading of the fiat currency.
• The ruble has lost almost 40% of its value so far this year and is sitting at historic lows.

The Russian ruble sank after Moscow's exchange reopened it for trading Wednesday following a pause amid the war in Ukraine.

The Moscow exchange closed ruble trading Friday as sanctions from the West — brought on by Putin's forces attacking Ukraine — hit Russia's economy, while offshore trading continued.

Since the closure, more moves from the West have targeted Putin's economy, and Russians got their first chance this week to react when the exchange reopened ruble trading Wednesday.

According to an early morning report from Bloomberg, the fiat currency sank 11% to 117.7 per dollar. The latest drop means the ruble has fallen nearly 40% so far this year, to historic lows, and is worth less than a penny.

Even as Russia's central bank reopened currency trading, it kept the stock exchange closed for a second week and it stopped the sale of foreign currencies, Insider reported previously.

Alongside new sanctions from the US targeting Russian oil, major companies like BP, Apple, and McDonald's are ending or suspending business in the country in response to its attack on Ukraine that began last month.

Russia's economy has been crumbling in the face of tough sanctions that have targeted its economy and financial system. The sanctions have included freezing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of the central bank's foreign currency assets and blocking Russian banks from the SWIFT payments system.