Russia says US to ease sanctions as part of targeted ceasefire deal with Ukraine

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to more accurately describe the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT system. 

Russia said Monday that it expects the U.S. to ease certain sanctions as part of an agreement for a limited ceasefire with Ukraine, lifting restrictions on certain banking sectors which are a major piece of international penalties on Moscow over its full-scale invasion launched in Feb. 2022. 

The sanctions lifting is part of an agreement for Russia and Ukraine to halt military attacks in the Black Sea, the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement on Tuesday. The statement came following a round of U.S.-brokered shuttle diplomacy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from Sunday to Tuesday.

Putin’s office said the ceasefire in the Black Sea would only come into force after sanctions relief. 

The Russian president’s office said the U.S. will help “restore access for Russian agricultural and fertilizer exports to the world market, reduce the cost of marine insurance, and expand access to ports and payment systems to conduct such transactions.”

To achieve this, Putin’s office said it expected the U.S. to lift sanctions on Russia’s Rosselkhozbank, or Russian Agriculture Bank, and “other financial organizations involved in ensuring operations on international trade in food products (including fish products) and fertilizers.” 

Part of sanctions relief includes connecting these financial institutions back to SWIFT, the international messaging system to process global transactions. Headquartered in Belgium, the SWIFT system operates under European Union law.

Under the Biden administration, select Russian banks were expelled from the Swift network by the EU in consultation with the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada in the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion against Ukraine.

The German Government on Wednesday said it was not aware of any planned changes to EU sanctions against Russia

Russia, in its readout of the meeting with U.S. officials, said the U.S. will need to lift restrictions on trade finance transactions and on companies producing and exporting food, including fish products, and fertilizers. Sanctions relief must also be applied to insurance companies with cargoes of food, fish products and fertilizers, it said.

The White House, in its readout of the meeting, did not detail that it would lift sanctions but said the U.S. “will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.”

The White House published a similar readout of its talks with Ukraine, with Kyiv also agreeing to the limited ceasefire in the Black Sea.

A timeline on implementation was not included in any statements. 

Updated on March 26 at 8:49 a.m. EDT