US Imposes Restrictions on Russian Oil Due to Putin’s Refusal to Cease Conflict in the Region
Donald Trump has enforced sanctions on Russia’s two largest petroleum firms following the conclusion that the Russian leader had not been truthful and direct in Ukraine talks, the US treasury chief has said.
These restrictions targeting Rosneft and Lukoil came a day after a planned Trump-Putin summit in the Hungarian capital got postponed, with the US administration expressing its disappointment at the lack of progress in ceasefire negotiations with Russia.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to stop this needless conflict, the Treasury Department is sanctioning Russia’s two largest petroleum firms that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said on Wednesday.
He warned that the Treasury Department was ready “to take further action should it be needed” to support Trump’s efforts to end the war.
In an interview with Fox Business prior to the formal statement, Bessent said the move was “among the biggest restrictions that we have done against the Russian Federation”.
The President has held off on new sanctions for months, explaining he hoped to persuade the Russian President to reach a peace agreement despite growing frustration with him. But the president’s patience apparently ran out in the week since he spoke to the Russian leader by telephone the previous week.
The European Union similarly declared new sanctions on the Russian government on the same day. They include a prohibition on bringing in LNG from Russia by the year 2027, the sanctioning of oil tankers operated by Russia and travel curbs on Russia’s diplomatic personnel.
