The president of the World Bank on Sunday said the Russian people were feeling an economic pinch even before powerful sanctions were enacted for its invasion of Ukraine.

"One thing to watch is the ruble that really affects the Russian people," bank president David Malpass said in an interview on CBS News' "Face The Nation."

"They've been having a hard time," he said. "You know, this is a tragedy right now for Ukrainians, for the neighbors of Ukraine, but also for Russians. Their per capita income is has fallen below China’s."

"The phrase in Russia is 'net voyne,' which is no to war," according to Malpass. "And so it's not clear how this is all going to play out. One thing is, the arc of history is for Russia to be closer to Europe. There's all this talk about China, but that's not a natural alliance. It's more so in 1989, I was on the border of China and Russia, and people were wondering, are they going to get together and work together? No sign of that for the long run."

Malpass said the sanctions hit the banks and Russia, but apparently not the oil and gas industry.

"But if they go, if they're able to stop the central Bank of Russia from operating, that would really have an effect on Russia and the people," he said.

He insisted the World Bank was doing its part of help Ukraine.

"The G7 is meeting finance ministers on Tuesday morning, so I'll meet with them and they're in the central banks of the G7 and they can decide a lot of how much aid goes into Ukraine. The IMF, we're working with them closely to assess the needs and to think about [economic] instruments."

Malpass acknowledged the concern about a spike in food and oil prices.

"And it was already at a point of fragility because inflation really hits the poor and this is going to drive up energy and food," he said. "We can wait and see what Russia does, what China does. Right now, China's buying more from Russia and allowing the sanctions to be eroded or circumvented a bit. We'll have to see where that goes as well. A big thing is the U.S. can supply a lot more if it puts its mind to it."

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