Britain prepares sanctions against Russia's financial sector — Zelensky's office
Presidential envoy confirms: London preparing new restrictions following criticism over weakened oil price cap. Whether control mechanism will be implemented remains key question.
By Tetiana Suchkova-Ladik
May 26, 2026 · 1 min read
Britain is working on a new package of sanctions against Russia's financial sector. This was announced by Ukraine's presidential envoy on sanctions policy in a comment to LIGA.net, citing confirmation from British partners.
The announcement came against the backdrop of sharp criticism of the G7: the coalition has failed to introduce a real enforcement mechanism for the price cap on Russian oil at $60 per barrel. According to analysis by the Kyiv School of Economics, Russia consistently sells oil above this mark through a shadow fleet — and no signatory country has faced any consequences for this.
This is where a real conflict emerges: London signed the price cap agreement, but its enforcement tools still don't work. New sanctions against the financial sector are either an acknowledgment of this failure and an attempt to compensate for lost pressure, or yet another declarative gesture without teeth.
Russia's financial sector remains a vulnerable node: it is through this sector that energy payments pass, which finance the war. Disconnecting even a few major banks from international correspondent accounts could complicate the logistics of oil payment settlements — if, of course, the sanctions include a list of specific institutions and secondary restrictions for intermediaries.
Details of the package — the names of banks, timelines, formats of secondary sanctions — official representatives have not yet disclosed. An announcement without these details repeats the same scheme that already discredited the oil price cap.
If Britain truly wants to break the chain "oil → dollars → weapons," the main question is not "will there be sanctions," but whether they will contain an enforcement mechanism — without which any new package will meet the same fate as the price cap.
