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.
The sanctions came a day after a planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest was shelved, with the Trump administration 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."
'It just didn’t feel right to me'
Trump has held off on new sanctions for months, saying he hoped to persuade Putin to make peace despite growing frustration with the Kremlin leader.
But the 79-year-old Republican's patience apparently ran out in the space of the six days since he spoke to Putin by telephone last Friday.
"We cancelled the meeting with President Putin — it just didn't feel right to me," Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
"It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it, but we'll do it in the future."
Trump also expressed frustration with the stalled negotiations. "In terms of honesty, the only thing I can say is, every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere,” he said.
The European Union said on Wednesday it was also imposing new sanctions on Russia.
They include a ban on importing liquefied natural gas from Russia by 2027, the blacklisting of oil tankers used by Moscow and travel curbs on Russian diplomats.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has repeatedly dangled the threat of sanctions against Russia without pulling the trigger as he seeks an elusive end to Russia's three-and-a-half-year war.
Trump had held out hope of a ceasefire deal last week after speaking to Putin, saying that the two leaders had agreed to meet in Budapest within two weeks.
