Trump administration hardens stance against the Kremlin day after cancelling a planned summit in Budapest
Donald Trump has imposed 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 has said.
The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil came a day after a planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest was shelved, with Washington expressing its disappointment at the lack of progress in ceasefire negotiations with Moscow.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, [the] treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine,” the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said on Wednesday.
He warned that the Treasury was prepared “to take further action if necessary” to support Trump’s efforts to end the war.
