Speaking on October 22, Trump said he hoped the sanctions would not last long.
“We hope this war will be resolved,” he stated.
The sanctions freeze all U.S.-based assets of Rosneft and Lukoil and prohibit American companies from conducting any transactions with them. The move marks a major escalation in Washington’s efforts to pressure Moscow and reflects Trump’s growing frustration over his inability to persuade Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
“Every time I talk with Vladimir, we have good conversations, but they never lead anywhere,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
After months of delaying punitive measures, Trump’s patience reportedly ran out when plans for a potential summit with Putin in Budapest collapsed. “I don’t want another pointless meeting,” he added.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sanctions target “two of Russia’s biggest oil producers that bankroll the Kremlin’s war machine.”
Speaking later on Fox Business’s Kudlow, Bessent described the decision as “one of the largest sanctions packages ever imposed by the United States against Russia,” adding that Putin “has not negotiated in good faith as we had hoped,” and that Trump was “frustrated with the state of the talks.”
On the same day, the European Union unveiled its 19th package of sanctions on Russia. Denmark, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, announced that member states had agreed to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) starting in 2027.
The EU also blacklisted over 100 oil tankers—part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” used to evade sanctions—and imposed travel restrictions on suspected Russian intelligence operatives.
The sanctions package is expected to be formally approved on October 23, just before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets EU leaders at a summit in Brussels.
The new wave of sanctions follows a Russian overnight strike on Ukraine that killed seven people and destroyed a kindergarten.