More than four years have passed since Russia illegally invaded Ukraine, and a coalition of Western and allied countries introduced the first major sanctions in response. Despite the volume and scope of these measures, the pressure campaign has largely failed to achieve its primary goal: imposing debilitating economic hardship on Moscow and constraining its warfighting capabilities.
At the same time, the expanding and increasingly complex sanctions regime continues to affect legitimate businesses across several industries, from banking, energy, and shipping to consumer goods, retail, technology, and aviation services. European enterprises such as Raiffeisen Bank and Siemens Energy, technology firms like SAP and Cloudfare, and even regional players like Aerospace Technical Services (ATS) have all faced operational, compliance, or reputational challenges linked to the sanctions environment. These structural gaps between policy intent and practical application have not yet been meaningfully addressed by amendments to the existing framework.
