Reuters: US Prepares New Sanctions Against Russia

They will affect key areas of the Russian economy.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has prepared additional sanctions that could apply to key areas of the Russian economy if Russian dictator Vladimir Putin continues to wage war in Ukraine. A U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

In addition, U.S. officials told their European counterparts that they support the EU's use of frozen Russian assets to buy U.S. weapons for Kiev. At the same time, Washington has held preliminary internal talks about using those funds held in the U.S. to support the Ukrainian armed forces, two U.S. officials added.

"While it is not clear whether Washington will actually implement any of these steps in the near future, it shows the administration has a well-developed toolkit to further raise the stakes after Trump on Wednesday imposed sanctions against Russia for the first time since returning to office in January," Reuters stressed.

One senior U.S. official told the publication that he would like to see European allies take the next big step against Russia, which could be additional sanctions or duties.

Another interlocutor emphasized that Trump would likely pause for a few weeks to gauge Russia's reaction to the sanctions announcement.

Sources told Reuters that some of the additional sanctions that the U.S. has prepared target Russia's banking sector and infrastructure that is used to bring oil to market.

"Ukrainian officials proposed new sanctions to the U.S. last week, a source familiar with those talks said. Among the specific ideas floated were measures to disconnect all Russian banks from the dollar system with their U.S. counterparts, the two sources said. However, it is not clear how seriously Ukraine's specific requests are being considered," the publication noted.

It is also known that some lawmakers are renewing efforts to advance a long-stalled bipartisan bill on sanctions against Russia. According to one of the publication's interlocutors, Trump is ready to support the package, but another source warned that such support is unlikely to happen this month.

In turn, a senior EU official noted that it would be more difficult for the European Union to impose full blocking sanctions against Lukoil than the United States, because the company is strongly linked to the European economy. Lukoil is known to own refineries in Bulgaria and Romania, and has an extensive network of gas stations across the continent.

"I think we need to find a way to break the ties ... before we can impose full sanctions," the EU official added.

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