Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. ‘is prepared to take further action if necessary’ and called on Moscow to immediately agree to a cease-fire.
WASHINGTON—The United States announced on Oct. 22 new sanctions on Russia, targeting the country’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, in an effort to limit the Kremlin’s ability to fund its war machine.
“I just felt it was time. We’ve waited a long time,” President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office as he hosted NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
“These are very big, against their two big oil companies,” Trump said, referring to the sanctions. “And we hope that they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled.”
Rutte welcomed the new sanctions, stating that they would be “putting more pressure” on Russia.
“It’s all about changing the calculus,” he said.
The sanctions were imposed by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Wednesday and will also impact subsidiaries of the two oil companies.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
“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,” Bessent said. “Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
The announcement comes as efforts to secure a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine have stalled after Trump canceled a possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary.
“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting. I don’t want to have a waste of time,” Trump told reporters on Oct. 21.
The president said he would make an announcement “over the next two days” about the next steps.
Trump’s decision to cancel a potential summit with Putin followed a phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The two diplomats were expected to meet this week to prepare for a possible leaders’ summit, but the White House determined that the meeting was “not necessary” after the call.
Therefore, the president has “no plans” to meet with Putin in the immediate future, the White House said in a statement.
By Emel Akan
