Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on the two biggest Russian petroleum firms after concluding that the Russian leader had not been truthful and direct in negotiations over Ukraine, the US treasury chief has said.
These restrictions against Rosneft and Lukoil came a day after a planned Trump-Putin summit in the Hungarian capital was shelved, with Washington expressing its disappointment at the lack of progress in peace talks with Russia.
“Due to Putin’s unwillingness to stop this needless conflict, the Treasury Department is sanctioning the two biggest Russian oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” America’s Treasury chief, Scott Bessent, said on Wednesday.
He warned that the Treasury was ready “to take further action should it be needed” to back the President’s initiatives to conclude the conflict.
Speaking to a business news network prior to the formal statement, Bessent remarked the move was “among the biggest restrictions that we have imposed on Russia”.
Trump had delayed fresh restrictions for several months, explaining he hoped to persuade Putin to make peace even amid rising irritation with him. But the president’s patience apparently ran out in the week since he spoke to Putin by telephone the previous week.
EU nations similarly declared new sanctions on the Russian government on the same day. These involve a ban on importing LNG from Russia by 2027, the blacklisting of petroleum vessels used by Moscow and travel restrictions on Russian diplomats.
