US President Donald Trump slapped major sanctions on two of Russia’s largest oil companies, and may have dropped a key limitation on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles, according to The Wall Street Journal, after concluding that Vladimir Putin was not being “honest and forthright” in Ukraine talks.
The sanctions came a day after a planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest was shelved, with Washington expressing its disappointment at the lack of progress in ceasefire negotiations with Moscow.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement announcing the sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, which Trump shared on social media.
He warned that Treasury was prepared “to take further action if necessary” to support President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Trump had lifted a key restriction that was preventing Kyiv from using western long-range missiles inside Russia.
The US newspaper’s proof: Ukraine had used a British Storm Shadow cruise missile to successfully strike an explosives and rocket fuel plant in Russia’s Bryansk.
Though not American made, the Storm Shadow missiles depend on US targeting data, which Trump had previously not allowed Ukraine to use to hit targets inside Russia.
Now, instead of requiring approval from the US Secretary of Defence, the authority for approving such attacks was returned to the US military’s European command, the Journal reported.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, had only allowed for such a use of targeting data at the very end of his presidency, and even in 2024 such a move was resisted by US officials.
However, Trump disputed the Journal article on social media shortly after it came out, disputing the claim and calling the story “FAKE NEWS!”
Even so, Trump has a long history of denying media reports that turn out to be accurate.
Trump ‘disappointed’
Trump held off on new sanctions for months, saying he hoped to persuade Russian President Putin to make peace despite growing frustration with the Kremlin leader.
The US President had held out hope of a ceasefire deal last week after speaking to Putin, saying that the two leaders had agreed to meet in Budapest within two weeks.
But since that conversation, his patience seemingly ran out.
“President Putin has not come to the table in an honest and forthright manner, as we’d hoped,” Bessent told Fox Business.
Bessent said that when the two leaders met in Alaska in August, “President Trump walked away when he realised that things were not moving forward.”
“There have been behind-the-scenes talks, but I believe that the president is disappointed at where we are in these talks,” he added.
Repeating a pattern of pivoting between Moscow and Kyiv, the US president at the same time stepped up the pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Trump pushed Zelenskyy to give up territory, and turned down his plea for long-range Tomahawk missiles to strike deep into Russia.
But Trump shifted once again on Tuesday, saying that he did not want to have a “wasted meeting,” ending the immediate prospect of a Putin summit.
On top of the US sanctions on Russian oil, which Bessent called “one of the largest sanctions that we have done against the Russian Federation” on Fox Business, EU leaders are hoping to reach agreement on a 19th sanctions package when they meet on Thursday.
Some are already mulling a 20th round of restrictions.
EU plans next Russia sanctions, while current package is blocked
LUXEMBOURG – EU foreign ministers brainstormed about ways to punish Russia’s economy in a future…
2 minutes
The 19th sanctions package includes a ban on importing liquefied natural gas from Russia by 2027, the blacklisting of oil tankers used by Moscow and travel curbs on Russian diplomats.
(cp, mhk)
