News Brief
Trump Hits Russia’s Oil Giants With Major Sanctions After Collapsed Peace Talks
Putin and Trump
US President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping sanctions against Russia’s top two oil giants, concluding that Vladimir Putin was not being "honest and forthright" in Ukraine talks, the US treasury chief said on Wednesday (22 October).
The decision followed the cancellation of a planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest, which Washington scrapped over stalled ceasefire discussions.
"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.
Bessent cautioned that the Treasury stands ready to impose “further action if necessary” to support President Donald Trump's efforts to end the war.
In a Fox Business interview prior to the announcement, Bessent described the measures as “one of the largest sanctions" ever imposed on the Russian Federation.
Trump, who had resisted fresh sanctions for months while seeking to coax Putin toward peace, appeared to lose patience in six days after a phone call with the Russian leader last week.
"President Putin has not come to the table in an honest and forthright manner, as we'd hoped," Bessent told Fox Business.
Recalling the August Alaska meeting, Bessent noted that Trump "walked away when he realized that things were not moving forward."
"There have been behind-the-scenes talks, but I believe that the president is disappointed at where we are in these talks," he added.
The EU measures feature a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports by 2027, blacklisting of Kremlin-linked oil tankers, and travel restrictions on Russian diplomats.
Since retaking office in January, Trump had frequently warned of sanctions but held back, hoping to broker an end to Russia’s three-and-a-half-year-long war.
Just last week, Trump expressed optimism about a possible ceasefire after his call with Putin, announcing tentative plans for a Budapest meeting within two weeks.
Continuing his alternating diplomacy between Moscow and Kyiv, Trump simultaneously increased pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to a Kyiv official cited by news agency AFP, Trump urged Zelensky to concede some territory and denied Ukraine’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles.
However, Trump reversed course on Tuesday, declaring he did not want a “wasted meeting,” effectively cancelling the planned Putin summit.
Following the announcement, global oil prices surged, with WTI and Brent benchmarks rising over one percent in after-hours trading.
