The US has sanctioned Russian banks with a combined asset value of $1 trillion.

In the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, President Biden imposed further penalties on Russian banks on Thursday, but he did not follow through on his warning to sanction Vladimir Putin directly or cut Russia out from the international banking system totally.

Biden told reporters at the White House, "We've now sanctioned Russian banks that collectively control around $1 trillion in assets." The US had already shut Russia's largest bank off from the US financial system, according to Biden.

"We're also blocking four more large banks today." That means all of their assets in America will be blocked," Biden explained.

VTB, Russia's second-largest bank with $250 billion in assets, is one of the newly sanctioned banks.

The United States, on the other hand, did not block Russian access to the SWIFT system (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication). The SWIFT system, which is run by the Belgian National Bank, is used for a substantial portion of international business transactions.

"The sanctions we've suggested on all of their banks are just as serious, if not more serious, than SWIFT, number one." When asked why SWIFT sanctions were not included in the revised package, Biden responded, "It's always an option, but right now, that's not the position that the rest of Europe intends to take."

In response to the invasion, Ukraine has demanded that Russia be cut off from SWIFT.

"We demand that Russia be disconnected from SWIFT, that a no-fly zone be established over Ukraine, and that additional effective measures be taken to stop the aggressor," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in a Twitter post.

When ABC News reporter Celia Vega pointed out that "penalties were clearly insufficient to discourage" Putin from launching an invasion, Biden said that economic sanctions were never designed to do so.

"No one anticipated that the sanctions would prevent anything from happening. "This will take some time," Biden remarked. "It's not going to happen; he'll say, 'Oh, my God.'" Sanctions are on their way. "I'm going to take a step back."

The remarks contrasted with Vice President Kamala Harris's Sunday statements, in which she stated that sanctions were imposed to stop Russia from invading Ukraine.

"The goal of the sanctions has always been and will continue to be deterrence," Harris said in Munich to reporters. "These are among the most severe sanctions we've ever issued, if not the most severe."

On Tuesday, White House Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh made similar remarks.

"Sanctions are not a means to an end," Singh explained. "They're designed to deter and prevent a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which would include the seizing of major cities like Kyiv."

From the east, the south, and the north, Russian armies have invaded Ukraine. The Chernobyl nuclear power facility has been taken over by Russia.