In a major policy shift, the Trump administration has canceled a planned summit with Vladimir Putin and simultaneously sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.
President Trump explained the summit cancellation by saying, “It didn’t feel right to me,” and that he saw no path to a successful outcome. This diplomatic rebuke was followed by a powerful economic blow.
The Treasury Department, led by Secretary Scott Bessent, announced the sanctions as a direct response to Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war” in Ukraine. The goal is to cut off the oil revenues that “fund the Kremlin’s war machine.”
This new, harder line represents a “swing of the pendulum” for an administration that had previously vacillated between pressuring Kyiv and confronting Moscow. The move suggests growing frustration with Putin’s “maximalist demands.”
The sanctions were praised by European allies, with EU President Ursula von der Leyen noting the “collective pressure” from both sides of the Atlantic. The EU is also preparing its 19th sanctions package, targeting Russian LNG and sanctions-evasion networks.