Banks Too Big to Sanction as War Wrecks Russia's Ukraine Ties

  • Ukrainian measures against Russia bypassed its biggest banks
  • Separatist conflict damaged Russian trade links with Ukraine
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Your enemy’s bank is your friend.

Or so Ukraine wants to believe after giving Russian banks a pass more than a year and a half into a separatist insurgency it blames on the Kremlin. Banks including state-run lenders sanctioned by the U.S. and the European Union have clung to their decade-long push into Ukraine, dodging the political acrimony that’s devastated business ties from airlines to energy.