Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies after concluding that Vladimir Putin was not being “honest and forthright” in Ukraine talks, the US treasury chief has said.
The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil 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, [the] treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said on Wednesday.
He warned that the Treasury was prepared “to take further action if necessary” to support Trump’s efforts to end the war.
Speaking to Fox Business before the official announcement, Bessent said the move was “one of the largest sanctions that we have done against the Russian Federation”.
Trump has held off on new sanctions for months, saying he hoped to persuade Putin to make peace despite growing frustration with him. But the president’s patience apparently ran out in the six days since he spoke to Putin by telephone last Thursday.
The European Union also announced new sanctions on Russia on Wednesday. They include 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.
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