Trump Sanctions Russian Oil Companies

The Trump administration sanctioned Russia’s two biggest oil companies Wednesday, taking such a move against Moscow for the first time in a marked shift in its approach to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The U.S. blacklisted Rosneft and Lukoil and issued other sanctions because Russia has failed to commit seriously to the peace process, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. He urged Russia to “stop the killing” and called for an immediate ceasefire.

“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,” he said. “Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war.”

The move comes less than a week after President Donald Trump announced that he’d be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, and declared that the Russian leader was ready for peace.

Trump and his team have at various points said they saw sanctions as closing the door on diplomacy, even as Ukraine and Europe have argued financial pressure would force Putin to the table.

Asked during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte what changed, Trump was terse. “I just felt it was time,” he said, adding that he still believes that Putin wants peace.

Trump also seemed to rule out the possibility of providing long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia, asserting that the weapons are “highly complex” and require as much as a year of “intense” training. “We know how to use it, but we’re not going to be teaching other people,” Trump said. “It’s too far out into the future.”

The new U.S. sanctions, however, are still a significant reversal. The Trump administration until now hadn’t yet updated the sanctions put in place under the Biden administration or issued new ones on Russia.

“This came after numerous attempts to give Russia the opportunity to begin genuine negotiations to end the war,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Olha Stefanishyna.

Trump announced the plan to meet Putin after their two-hour phone call last week, but on Tuesday he said such a meeting would be “a waste of time.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov scrapped tentative plans for a preliminary meeting this week when Moscow refused to budge from hardline positions about ending the war.

Trump called on Russia to accept a ceasefire proposal that would freeze the conflict along the current battlelines, which Zelenskyy expressed support for earlier this week. “We would like to see them just take the line that has been formed … and go home,” Trump said. “It’s time to make a deal. People are dying.”

In another sign of Washington’s increased pressure on Moscow, the Trump administration has allowed Ukraine to use U.S. targeting data to launch long-range British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles against Russia, according to a person familiar with the matter. The change came after the approval authority for these strikes was moved from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who commands NATO and U.S. European Command. The move was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Trump, however, disputed that report in a social media post, writing: “The Wall Street Journal story on the U.S.A.’s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia is FAKE NEWS! The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!”

One European defense official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said transferring the authority would mark “a significant shift” in U.S. policy in favor of Ukraine.

Rutte, addressing the media in between meetings on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning, denied that his last-minute trip to Washington reflected any heightened nervousness following Trump’s conversation with Putin last week. He said that he has “total confidence” in Trump’s ability to eventually broker a deal to end the war, calling the U.S. president “the only one who can get this done.”

He continued the flattery in the Oval Office, praising Trump for catalyzing new commitments on defense spending by NATO members and agreeing to send additional U.S. weapons to Ukraine as long as NATO allies pay for them.

The Trump administration’s sanctions announcement comes as EU leaders are nearing a deal to allow Ukraine to use billions of euros worth of Russian frozen state assets to fund a massive loan to Kyiv to support its ongoing war effort. They will hold their quarterly European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday and are also expected to adopt a 19th sanctions package against Moscow.