The US has announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s two largest oil companies – Rosneft and Lukoil – in an effort to pressure Moscow to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine.
“I just felt it was time. We waited a long time,” Trump said in the Oval Office, after a meeting with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte to discuss peace negotiations.
The announcement came one day after US President Donald Trump said a meeting planned with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest would be shelved indefinitely.
Earlier Wednesday, Russia unleashed an intense bombardment on Ukraine that killed at least seven people, including children.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new sanctions were needed due to “Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war”. He said these oil companies fund the Kremlin’s “war machine”.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Bessent said in a statement, adding that his office will “take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war”.
Speaking alongside Rutte in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he hoped that the sanctions would help force a breakthrough.
He called the sanctions package “tremendous”, and added that he hoped they could be swiftly withdrawn if Russia agrees to stop the war. He also criticised Putin for not being serious about making peace.
“Every time I speak to Vladimir, I have good conversations And then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” he said.
Rutte also praised the move, saying it was “putting more pressure” on Putin.
“You have to put pressure, and that is just what he did today,” Rutte aid.
The move comes one week after the UK slapped a similar sanctions package on Rosneft and Lukoil.
“There is no place for Russian oil on global markets and we will take whatever actions are necessary to destroy the capability of the Russian government to continue this illegal war in Ukraine,” UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves said while announcing the move.
Responding to the UK move last week, Russia’s embassy in London said targeting its country’s major energy companies would disrupt global fuel supplies and drive up costs worldwide.
It had also said the sanctions would have “a detrimental impact on the energy security” of developing and underdeveloped countries, adding “pressure only complicates peaceful dialogue and leads to further escalation”.
The two Russian oil firms export 3.1 million barrels of oil per day. Rosneft is responsible for nearly half of all Russian oil production, which makes up 6% of the global output, according to estimates from the UK government.
Earlier on Wednesday, Bessent told Fox News that Trump had been disappointed by the progress of the talks and accused Putin of not being honest.
“President Putin has not come to the table in an honest and forthright manner, as we’d hoped,” Bessent told the broadcaster.
Oil and gas are Russia’s biggest exports, and Moscow’s biggest customers include China, India and Turkey. Trump has also urged these countries to halt purchases of Russian oil in a bid to put economic pressure on the Kremlin.
Trump reportedly had been considering sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil ahead of his meeting with Putin in August in Alaska, which failed to lead to a peace deal.
Earlier this year, the UK and US directly sanctioned major Russian energy companies Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegas.
US lawmakers, including Republicans, have been waiting for a go-ahead from the White House to vote on a bill that would enforce steep sanctions against Russia and also target countries that purchase oil from the Kremlin.
At the White House, Rutte was expected to discuss a 12-point plan formulated by European NATO allies and Kyiv, which would see the current front lines frozen, a return of deported children as well as a prisoner exchange between the two warring countries.
The plan also includes a war recovery fund for Ukraine, as well as security pathways and a clear pathway for Ukraine to join the EU, as well as increased military aid to Kyiv and economic pressure on Moscow.
Earlier this week, Trump said he did not want a “wasted meeting” with Putin in Budapest, and suggested that the main point of contention is Moscow’s refusal to cease fighting along the current front line.
A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week – but the White House said the two had had a “productive” call and that a meeting was no longer “necessary”.
Trump, for his part, has repeatedly endorsed proposals to freeze the fighting along current frontlines.
“Let it be cut the way it is,” he said on Monday. “I said: cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.”
Russia, for its part, has pushed back against the idea, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that “the consistency of Russia’s position doesn’t change” – a reference to its desire for Ukrainian troops to leave the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east.
On Wednesday, Trump also pushed back against reporting in the Wall Street Journal that the US had approved Ukrainian long-range missile strikes into Russia, calling it “fake news”.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky has expressed a desire for the US to supply long-range US Tomahawk missiles to his forces and suggested that the threat of their introduction to the war theatre may bring Russia to the negotiating table.
