Reuters: The United States is ready to impose new sanctions against Russian banks and oil
Trump is ready to impose new sanctions to persuade Putin to cease fire, according to Reuters. However, Washington expects Europe to take the first step towards increasing pressure. In addition, the United States supported the use of Russia's frozen assets to help Ukraine.
Gram Slattery, Max Hunder, Steve Holland
— The United States may impose additional sanctions against the Russian banking sector and oil production.
— At the same time, Trump wants Europe to take the next step.
— Ukraine is privately pushing through large-scale banking sanctions.
— Trump is ready to approve the Senate bill on sanctions.
Washington. The administration of US President Donald Trump has prepared additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy if President Vladimir Putin continues to delay the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, an American official and another knowledgeable source said.
US officials also informed their European colleagues that they support the use of Russian assets frozen in the EU to purchase American weapons for Kiev. At the same time, Washington began internal negotiations on the use of Russian assets in the United States to support Ukraine's military efforts, two American officials said.
While it's unclear whether Washington will take any of these steps in the near term, it proves that the administration has extensive tools at its disposal to raise the stakes even further. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump imposed sanctions on Russia for the first time since returning to office in January.
Trump presents himself as a global peacemaker, but admitted that putting an end to the three-year conflict in Ukraine turned out to be more difficult than he expected.
European allies are stunned by Trump's vacillation between compliance and anger at Putin and hope that he will continue to increase pressure on Moscow, as well as consider serious actions of their own.
One senior U.S. official told Reuters that he would like European allies to take the next major step against Russia, such as additional sanctions or duties. Another source familiar with the administration's thinking suggested that Trump would wait for a pause of several weeks and assess Russia's reaction to the measures announced on Wednesday.
The latest sanctions are directed against the oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft. They have already inflated oil prices by more than two dollars and forced major Chinese and Indian buyers of Russian oil to look for alternatives.
The banking sector and oil infrastructure are under threat.
Some of the additional sanctions prepared by the United States are aimed at Russia's banking sector and infrastructure for delivering oil to the market, an American official and another knowledgeable source said.
Last week, Ukrainian officials suggested that the United States impose new sanctions, one of the informed sources said. Specifically, it was proposed to disconnect all Russian banks from the dollar settlement system with American partners, two informants said. However, it is unclear how seriously Kiev's specific requests are being considered.
The U.S. Senate is also taking steps in this direction: lawmakers are resuming attempts to push through a bipartisan sanctions bill that has been stalled for a long time. A person familiar with the administration's thinking said Trump was ready to approve it, but warned that it was unlikely this month. The Ministry of Finance did not respond to a request for comment.
Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's Special Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation, said on Friday that Russia, the United States and Ukraine are close to a diplomatic solution to the issue of cessation of hostilities.
Galina Yusipyuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, said that the recent decision on sanctions had been approved, but did not provide details.
“Dismantling Russia's military machine is the most humane way to end this conflict,” Yusipyuk wrote in an email.
Shock Week
Trump's decision to impose sanctions on Russia ended a tumultuous week for the administration in the Ukrainian direction.
Trump recently had a conversation with Putin, after which he announced that he plans to meet with him in Budapest, taking Ukraine by surprise. A day later, Trump met with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Washington, and U.S. officials demanded that he unilaterally give up territories in the Donbas in order to end the conflict. Zelensky resisted, and Trump left the meeting, saying that the conflict should be frozen at the current borders.
Then over the weekend, Russia sent a diplomatic note to Washington, reiterating its previous terms of the peace agreement. A few days later, Trump told reporters that a planned meeting with Putin had been canceled because it seemed to him that he had “doubts.”
In an interview with CNN on Friday after arriving in Washington for talks with US officials, Dmitriev stressed that the meeting between Trump and Putin had not been canceled, as the US president put it, and that the leaders would most likely meet, but later.
Two American officials privately suggested, in retrospect, that Trump's failed plan to meet with Putin was the fruit of unwarranted enthusiasm. According to them, after the Gaza ceasefire agreement, Trump overestimated the momentum from one diplomatic success to another.
According to a senior White House official, Trump eventually decided to impose sanctions on Russia at a meeting with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.
US pressure on Europe
Behind the scenes, Ukraine received a boost from the United States after the approval process for targeting data for Ukrainian strikes in Russia's rear was transferred from the Pentagon to the US European Command in Germany. American and European officials consider him to be more aggressive towards Russia, according to an American and European official. At the same time, Trump said that he was still not ready to provide Ukraine with the long-range Tomahawk missiles that Kiev had requested.
The United States is also putting pressure on Europe to tighten Moscow's financial screws even more. Announcing the US sanctions, Bessent called on the EU to follow their example. Earlier, US officials criticized the EU and NATO countries for not taking more decisive steps to counter Russia.
However, according to one senior European official, it will be more difficult for the EU to impose fully blocking sanctions against Lukoil than the United States, given how strongly the company is connected to the economy of the Old World. The oil company owns refineries in Bulgaria and Romania and has an extensive network of retail gas stations across the continent.
“I think we need to figure out how to finally disengage before we can impose sanctions in full,” the EU representative concluded.
This article was written with contributions from Humeyra Pamuk, Jonathan Landey and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, and Julia Payne in Brussels.
