White House Prepping New Sanctions If Russia Rejects Latest Ukraine Ceasefire Offer

The White House is preparing a fresh round of sanctions on Russia’s energy sector which would be implemented if Moscow rejects the Trump-proposed peace deal with Ukraine.

According to Bloomberg, this time around it is set to be even more muscular: “The US is considering options, such as targeting vessels in Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of tankers used to transport Moscow’s oil, as well as traders who facilitate the transactions, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.”

Ukraine’s President Zelensky has called the current draft a “very workable version” – after he met in Berlin for two days with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to work on it. Next it is expected to be presented to the Kremlin in the coming days.

The Ukrainian leader appears somewhat satisfied as it’s said to include robust security guarantees, but which stop short of plans for NATO membership. Russia on the other hand has gone so far as to demand that rejection of NATO membership be enshrined in Ukraine’s national constitution. 

Zelensky said Tuesday that he worked with the American delegation “in great detail on documents that could stop the war and guarantee security” during the deliberations. “Every single detail matters because not a single detail must become a reward for Russia’s aggression,” he had said while visiting The Hague afterward.

President Trump has meanwhile claimed that “we’re closer now than we have been.” 

But will President Putin go for it? Here’s how CNN presents one key aspect which is not likely to sit well with the Kremlin:

There are now five separate documents under discussion within the proposed peace deal – they include “legally binding” security guarantees that would be voted on by the US Congress, as well as plans for funding Ukraine’s post-war recovery.

These are the so-called Article 5-style guarantees which Russia will view as setting in place a recipe for future potential war, and a bigger one at that, between NATO and Moscow.

Moon of Alabama describes all of this as but the Flim Flam Theater Of Peace Talks On Ukraine:

The negotiations over the weekend between the U.S., Ukraine and Europe about the parameters of a ceasefire or peace agreement with Russia were surreal. The three sides are fighting each other over detailed points that Russia is sure to reject. They also left out important points which Russia had named as its priority items.

There is no way that any of this will lead to peace. Which may well be the point of the whole theater.

Commenting on German Chancellor’s Friedrich Merz’s claim of a ceasefire finally being “conceivable” – Moon of Alabama comments further:

No, Mr. Merz, there is no conceivable ceasefire. Russia does not want one. A ceasefire would allow Ukraine to recover and get ready for the next round of war. Russia wants a peace agreement that not only covers Ukraine but defines a new security architecture for the whole of Europe. Russia also wants physical control over the four oblast, plus Crimea, that voted to become members of the Russian Federation. It wants a Ukraine that is disarmed and denazified.

Neither seems to be on offer.

And here’s the key line from the astute analysis: “Instead we get some spectacle over US ‘security guarantees’ conditioned on Ukrainian concessions of land. Zelenski is trying to cash in the first while not conceding the second.”

Meanwhile, Washington meagerly warning of some energy sanctions just looks more symbolic than anything, given Russia has proven it has weathered robust and ratcheting efforts to isolate it economically so far.