The US Department of Treasury 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.
“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.
The announcement came as Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte was due at the White House to discuss peace negotiations.
The US announcement came after Russia unleashed an intense bombardment on Ukraine, and after Trump said plans for a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Budapest had been shelved.
At least seven people were killed, including two children, during intense Russian drone and missile strikes on Ukraine on Wednesday.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Bessent said in his statement, adding that his office will “take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war”.
The move comes one week after the UK slapped a similar sanctions package on Rosneft and Lukoil, which together produce nearly half of Russia’s oil.
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.
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 previously 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.
