The US President has enforced sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies after concluding that the Russian leader was not being “honest and forthright” in Ukraine talks, America’s Treasury Secretary has said.
The sanctions targeting Rosneft and Lukoil came a day after a planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest got postponed, with Washington voicing its frustration at the absence of advances in peace talks with Moscow.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, the Treasury Department is sanctioning Russia’s two largest petroleum firms that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” America’s Treasury chief, Scott Bessent, said on Wednesday.
He warned that the Treasury Department was prepared “to take further action if necessary” to support Trump’s efforts to conclude the conflict.
Speaking to a business news network prior to the formal statement, Bessent remarked the move was “one of the largest sanctions that we have done on Russia”.
The President had delayed new sanctions for months, explaining he aimed to convince the Russian President to make peace even amid rising irritation with him. But Trump’s tolerance seemed to expire in the week after he talked to the Russian leader over the phone the previous week.
EU nations similarly declared additional restrictions on Russia on the same day. These involve a ban on importing liquefied natural gas from Russia by 2027, the blacklisting of oil tankers used by Moscow and travel curbs on Russia’s diplomatic personnel.
