Three Years of War in Ukraine: Are Sanctions Against Russia Making a Difference?

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has implemented a broad sweep of sanctions focused on isolating Russia from the global financial system, reducing the profitability of its energy sector, and blunting its military edge. These added to a bevy of sanctions that the United States imposed on Russia after it annexed the Ukrainian region of Crimea in 2014. The reelection of U.S. President Donald Trump injected uncertainty into the future of U.S. support for Ukraine, but his administration has not lifted or relaxed the sanctions regime against Russia implemented under President Joe Biden. As the United States pushes for ceasefire talks, Trump has raised the prospect of ratcheting up sanctions pressure in order to bring Russia to the negotiating table.

What sanctions has the United States imposed against Russia over the war in Ukraine?

The latest sanctions have targeted Russia’s: 

Financial sector. The United States began its 2022 barrage of sanctions by freezing $5 billion of the Russian central bank’s U.S. assets, an unprecedented move to prevent Moscow from using its foreign reserves to prop up the Russian ruble. It also barred the largest Russian bank and several others from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a Belgium-based interbank messaging service critical to processing international payments. The U.S. Treasury Department prohibited U.S. investors from trading Russian securities, including debt; all together, the sanctions restrict dealings with 80 percent of Russian banking sector assets. Washington has also sought to seize the U.S. assets of sanctioned Russian individuals, including President Vladimir Putin. 

Energy. The United States has also focused on reducing Russia’s ability to profit from the global sale of fossil fuels. The year before the war, Russia recorded more than $240 billion in energy exports, almost half of which came from oil. In March 2022, Washington banned the import of Russian crude oil, liquified natural gas, and coal, and restricted U.S. investments in most Russian energy companies. In December of that year, the United States and its Group of Seven (G7) allies implemented rules aimed at capping the price that other importing countries, such as China and India, would pay for Russian crude oil. In 2024, the United States barred imports of Russian enriched uranium, cutting off a major source of revenue for Russia. However, certain U.S. companies are able to apply for waivers until 2028 to circumvent the ban.

Military tech. The U.S. Commerce Department has curbed exports of high-tech products such as aircraft equipment and semiconductors to Russia with the aim of curtailing its military capabilities. The export restrictions extend to goods other countries produce using American technology.

Miscellaneous sectors. In January 2024, the United States and G7 imposed sanctions on Russian diamonds, one of the largest unsanctioned Russian exports at the time. Moscow recorded almost $4 billion in diamond revenue in 2022, with G7 countries accounting for about 70 percent of sales. The United States also sanctioned companies around the world, including in China, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, that it said have helped Russia evade sanctions.

While U.S. sanctions have so far failed to cripple the Russian economy, the United States still has an array of more comprehensive sanctions actions it can take, Columbia University’s Edward Fishman wrote for CFR in December, including closing gaps that allow Moscow to access hard currency. Pursuing these economic levers would ratchet up pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

What are other governments doing?

The United States implemented these sanctions in tandem with the European Union (EU) and other partners. While the EU placed its own sanctions on Russian banks and individuals, including Putin, the bloc’s sanctions on Russian energy have proven the most contentious. 

At the time of the invasion, Europe was Russia’s largest energy export market. Moscow was supplying nearly 40 percent of the natural gas consumed by the EU and nearly one-third of the bloc’s crude oil. Given that dependence and opposition from Hungary and other members, the EU has not imposed bloc-wide restrictions on gas imports. However, in 2022, the EU announced an embargo on imports of most Russian crude oil and joined the G7 price cap; in early 2023, it imposed an additional ban on Russian refined oil products such as diesel and gasoline. The EU pledged in 2025 to fully end imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027.

The EU and other governments have also imposed sanctions targeting Russia’s financial channels and military technology. Indeed, two-thirds of the more than $330 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets are located in the EU, mostly in Belgium; U.S. and European lawmakers have repeatedly called for using seized Russian central bank reserves to finance Ukraine’s reconstruction. In December 2022, the bloc agreed to ban exports of some military hardware to Russia and its allies, such as Iran. Meanwhile, Taiwan, the world’s leading producer of semiconductors, restricted exports of computing chips, which can be used in drones and other military equipment, to Russia. 

But some countries have taken little to no action against Russia or have otherwise seized on the moment to their own benefit. China and India, for instance, have increased their imports of Russian oil and natural gas. Others have acted as middlemen, importing Western goods and then sending them on to Russia.

Are sanctions working?

Sanctions have inflicted some pain on Russia’s economy, with oil and gas revenue declining after the December 2022 price cap was implemented and Russian central bank assets at risk of confiscation. But those sanctions have not caused widespread economic collapse or halted Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. In fact, the International Monetary Fund estimated that Russia’s gross domestic product actually increased by 3.6 percent in 2024—a higher growth rate than the United States and many other Western economies—due to massive war spending. 

Still, some sanctions supporters say the measures are not exclusively designed to crush Russia’s economy or end the war, but to send the message that violating international norms and invading a neighbor will be met with a strong coalition response. They point out that sanctions have still caused disruptions, noting shortages of critical goods such as medicine and airplane parts. Other proponents argue that the penalties will be increasingly effective over time, forcing Russia to make costly trade-offs. 

Analysts say Russia is a particularly difficult target given its export of many crucial commodities, including oil and gas, fertilizers, wheat, and precious metals. At times, Russia has wielded its status as an energy exporter to retaliate against Europe. In August 2022, Moscow shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which supplied almost 60 percent of Germany’s natural gas. It has also effectively adapted to the new sanctions regimes. Russia soon found ways around the G7 price cap, including by enlisting a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and shifting exports to China and India. Meanwhile, many European countries continue to import Russian gas, which is more expensive than crude oil.

Prior to its 2022 invasion, Russia spent years building up more than $640 billion in central bank reserves, only half of which are now subject to Western sanctions. Moscow has also adjusted to conduct much of its bilateral trade in rubles and raised interest rates to stabilize its currency to roughly its pre-invasion level.

Trade with China has grown significantly. In 2023, China imported record quantities of Russian energy, and about 92 percent of trade between the two countries is now conducted in rubles and Chinese yuan, according to Russian officials, compared to 25 percent before the invasion. Beijing has also stepped in to supply Moscow with semiconductors and other technologies that could have military uses.

Are new sanctions on the table during ceasefire negotiations?

Trump made ending the Russia-Ukraine war a major campaign pledge, and since returning to office in January, his administration has pushed for a ceasefire and peace negotiations. Since April, Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose further sanctions on Russia if it does not agree to a temporary ceasefire ahead of peace talks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in May that the EU was also prepared to impose further sanctions on Russia’s energy and financial sectors in order to draw the country to the negotiating table. 

Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in Istanbul in May for their first direct peace talks since the early days of the war, a culmination of months of pressure by the Trump administration. However, Putin, Trump, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not attend the talks, which failed to produce a major breakthrough. Nevertheless, the United States and its Western allies continue to push for an end to the war.

Ivana Saric, Noah Berman, and Anshu Siripurapu contributed to this In Brief. Will Merrow created the graphics.