US Slams Russia with Sanctions 2.0: Banks and Energy Sector in Crosshairs as Ukraine Pressure Play

Washington just dropped the hammer—again. The Treasury Department’s latest sanctions package takes direct aim at Russia’s financial arteries and energy lifelines, squeezing harder for concessions on Ukraine.

Banking blacklist: Major Russian lenders face fresh transaction freezes, cutting off dollar access. Because nothing says ’diplomacy’ like strangling correspondent networks.

Energy chokehold: New restrictions target oilfield tech exports and Arctic LNG projects. Because apparently $100/barrel wasn’t painful enough for global markets.

Bonus cynicism: Wall Street banks will somehow still find a way to profit from the rubble—probably through ’humanitarian bond offerings’ with 300bps spreads.

Trump presses harder after Putin rejects peace talks

James Hewitt, spokesperson for the National Security Council, said Trump is still focused on a full and comprehensive ceasefire. Hewitt refused to say anything about current discussions behind closed doors.

If Trump does approve this new sanctions package, it’ll follow the US-Ukraine minerals deal he signed on Wednesday, which was meant to be part of the peace framework. That agreement was pushed hard by Trump to show he’s taking a strong line, even as Putin ignores calls for negotiation.

Since the 2022 invasion, the US and its allies have added sanctions over and over. But the Kremlin always finds ways around them. Moscow keeps making money, keeps buying weapons, and the war drags on. That’s why this new set of penalties targets Russia’s lifelines directly.

Kurt Volker, who once served as Trump’s envoy to NATO and also handled Ukraine negotiations during his first term, said, “Trump has been bending over backwards to give Putin every opportunity to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to have a ceasefire and an end to the war,’ and Putin keeps rejecting him.”

Volker added, “This is the next phase of putting some pressure on Russia. Putin has been escalating.” Trump, meanwhile, “has got the US and Ukraine now in alignment calling for an immediate and full ceasefire, and Putin is now the outlier.”

Witkoff meets Putin again as Moscow keeps launching attacks

Since returning to the Oval Office in January, Trump has been moving pieces around to try to make the Kremlin play ball. One of the biggest moves was shutting down the Justice Department task force that used to chase down sanctions violators and Russian oligarchs.

He’s also made some public comments that support Russia, blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the war and calling him a “dictator.” None of those gestures worked.

Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special peace envoy, has taken it further. He’s been promoting a peace deal that would give four Ukrainian regions to Moscow.

He’s now met Putin four times, including a visit just last week. But three days after that, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, repeated Putin’s maximum demands, and more attacks followed. Missile and drone strikes slammed into Ukrainian cities again, killing more civilians.

Back in March, Reuters reported that US officials had a sanctions relief plan on the table—ready to give Russia a break if it came to the negotiating table. But that plan is dead for now. Trump’s mood has changed. Last Saturday, he met Zelenskiy in Vatican City for what both sides called a “very productive” meeting.

One day later, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was “strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions and Tariffs on Russia” and said they’d stay in place until there’s a full ceasefire and a final deal.

Volker also pointed out that Russia is still making serious money off oil and gas sales to India and China. He said the US could go further by using secondary sanctions, a tactic where a country punishes another country for doing business with a third one.

In this case, that would mean punishing countries that keep buying from Russia. Volker said it would be “very significant” if Trump pulled that trigger.

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