The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has imposed sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies aimed at pressuring President Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table and bring an end to Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The sanctions against oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil came after months of calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as bipartisan pressure on Trump to implement tougher measures against Russia’s oil industry, the economic engine that has enabled the country to continue its protracted conflict.
The U.S. administration announced the sanctions as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited Washington for talks with Trump.
The military alliance has been coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of which were purchased from the United States by Canada and European countries.
“Hopefully he’ll become reasonable,” Trump said of Putin shortly after the Treasury Department announced the sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies and their subsidiaries. “And hopefully Zelenskyy will be reasonable, too. You know, it takes two to tango, as they say.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new sanctions were a direct response to Moscow’s refusal to end its “senseless war” and an attempt to choke off “the Kremlin’s war machine.”
Bessent added that the Treasury Department was prepared to take further action if necessary to support Trump’s efforts to end the war. “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
The announcement came after Russian drones and missiles struck sites across Ukraine, killing at least six people, including a woman and her two young daughters.
The attacks occurred in waves from Tuesday night into Wednesday, targeting at least eight Ukrainian cities, as well as a village near the capital, Kyiv, where a strike set fire to a house where the mother and her 6-month-old and 12-year-old daughters were staying, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk said.
At least 29 people, including five children, were wounded in Kyiv, which appeared to be the main target, authorities said.
Russian drones also hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, later Wednesday while children were inside, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. One person was killed and six were injured, but no children were physically harmed, he added.
During his Oval Office visit, Rutte emphasized that the weaponry the U.S. is selling to Europe to supply Ukraine has been crucial in helping prevent many attacks like the one that devastated the kindergarten.
“We need to make sure that the air defense systems are in place, and we need the U.S. systems to do that, and the Europeans are paying for that,” Rutte said. “It is exactly the type of action we needed, and the President is doing that and trying everything to get this work done.”
