The US is preparing sanctions against Russia because of Ukraine, but it is not clear whether Trump will sign
US officials have completed new economic sanctions against Russia, including measures targeting the banking and energy sector to intensify Moscow's pressure to support US President Donald Trump's efforts to end the Ukraine, according to three American officials and a source familiar with the subject, Reuters reports.
Targets include the Gazprom Russian Energy Energy Gigant and major entities involved in the sectors of natural and banking resources, an official from the administration said, which, like the other sources, requested anonymity, writes News.ro. The official did not provide additional details.
However, it was not clear at all whether the package will be approved by Trump, whose sympathies of Moscow's statements and actions were replaced by frustration to the refusal of Russian President Vladimir Putin to respond to his calls for a cease and for peace negotiations.
“The US National Security Council is trying to coordinate a set of more punitive actions against Russia,” said the source familiar with the problem. “This will have to be approved by Trump.”
The decision, at Trump
“The decision belongs entirely to him,” a second American official confirmed.
“From the beginning, the president was clear in his commitment to obtaining a complete and comprehensive cessation of fire,” said the spokesman of the National Security Council, James Hewitt. “We do not comment on details of the negotiations in progress,” he said.
The US Treasury, which implements most American sanctions, has not responded to a comment request.
An approval from Trump of the new sanctions – which would follow the signing of an agreement on the US and Ukraine on Wednesday, which Trump promoted intensely as part of his efforts for peace – could signal a tightening of his position towards Kremlin.
Since the outbreak of Russian invasion in Ukraine, in 2022, the United States and their allies have imposed successive sanctions against Russia. Although these measures have affected the Russian economy, Moscow has found ways to bypass the sanctions and to continue the financing of the war.
Trump “has over the head to give Putin all the chances to say,” Well, we will accept a cessation of fire and an end of the war “, and Putin continues to reject it,” said Kurt Volker, was sent to the US to NATO and former US representative for Ukraine negotiations in Trump's first term. “This is the next stage in exercising a pressure on Russia.”
The measures taken by Trump
“Putin escalated the situation,” he continued. Trump “managed to align the US and Ukraine in the call for an immediate and complete ceasefire, and now Putin is the one that is outside the consensus.”
Since taking over the mandate in January, Trump has taken measures considered to be meant to encourage Russia's acceptance of peace for peace, including the abolition of an operative team of the justice department that had been created to apply sanctions and to target the oligarch close to Kremlin.
He also made favorable statements to Moscow, falsely accusing Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski of began the conflict and calling him “dictator”.
Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, promoted a peace strategy that would involve four Ukrainian regions to Moscow and met with Putin four, most recently last week.
But three days after that meeting, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, reiterated the extreme requests of Putin for an understanding, and the Russian forces continued the attacks on the front line, as well as the rocket and drones on the Ukrainian cities, causing new civil victims.
Reuters reported in March that the United States is developing a plan that could provide Russia with a relaxation of sanctions, but Trump has expressed the frustration of Putin's delays in recent weeks and, last Saturday, he had a “very productive” meeting Tête-à-tête with Zelenski.
The next day, Trump said, in a post on the SA TRUTH Social platform, that “he takes into account the imposition of large-scale banking sanctions, sanctions and customs tariffs against Russia”, which would remain in force until a cessation of fire and a final peace agreement.
Volker said that Russia gets strong currency to finance its army through oil and gas sales to countries such as India and China and that it would be “very significant” if Trump would impose secondary sanctions on these transactions.
