US President Donald Trump has slapped major 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 said on Wednesday.
The sanctions 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, 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 announcing the sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil.
He warned that Treasury was prepared “to take further action if necessary” to support Trump’s efforts to end the war.
Speaking to Fox Business ahead of the official announcement, Bessent said the move was “one of the largest sanctions that we have done against the Russian Federation”.
Trump said on Wednesday that he had cancelled the planned summit with Putin over a lack of progress in diplomatic efforts and a sense that the timing was off.
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