- Any settlement that ends Russia's war on Ukraine must consider the Western sanctions that have helped constrain Vladimir Putin's military, a former State Department official said. If sanctions are lifted without any major changes to Moscow's foreign policy, Russia could accelerate the resurgence of its military as the wartime economy isn't going away.
The unprecedented sanctions regime that the West imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine hasn't stopped Vladimir Putin's war machine, but it still transformed his economy, according to a former State Department official.
