Trump imposes sweeping sanctions on Russia’s oil industry as Putin flexes nuclear muscle

US President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday announced sweeping new sanctions targeting Russia’s powerful oil industry aimed at forcing President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and ending Moscow’s nearly four-year war on Ukraine.

The measures hit Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, along with dozens of their subsidiaries, in a move that Trump said he hoped would “make Putin reasonable.”

“Hopefully he’ll become reasonable,” Trump told reporters shortly after the Treasury Department announced the sanctions. “And hopefully Zelenskyy will be reasonable, too. You know, it takes two to tango, as they say.”

The sanctions follow months of lobbying from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and bipartisan pressure in Congress for Trump to target Russia’s energy revenues.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the new restrictions were a direct response to Moscow’s refusal to end what he called its “senseless war.”

He added that the department was prepared to “take further action if necessary” and urged allies to “join us and adhere to these sanctions.”

The announcement came as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with Trump in Washington to discuss allied efforts to support Ukraine. NATO countries have coordinated deliveries of US-made weapons to Kyiv, often purchased by Canada and European partners.

The European Union on Thursday approved its own new package of sanctions, targeting Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning imports of liquefied natural gas.

“Today is a good day for Europe and Ukraine,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said in Brussels, announcing the measures ahead of an EU summit attended by Zelenskyy.

He said the sanctions would “introduce new and comprehensive measures on oil and gas, the shadow fleet and Russia’s financial sector,” and would also restrict the movement of Russian diplomats within the bloc.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Putin oversaw large-scale nuclear drills that the Kremlin said involved all components of Russia’s strategic deterrent: land, sea and air.

The exercise featured the launch of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk site in northwestern Russia, a Sineva missile fired from a submarine in the Barents Sea, and Tu-95 bombers deploying long-range cruise missiles.

The drills, Putin said, were planned in advance, but they coincided with renewed uncertainty over his anticipated summit with Trump in Budapest.

Trump said Tuesday that the meeting was on hold because he didn’t want it to be a “waste of time.”

The postponement followed a call between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, during which Lavrov made clear that Moscow opposed an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that the proposed Putin-Trump meeting would happen only once both sides were ready.

“No one wants to waste time: neither President Trump nor President Putin,” Peskov said. “Effectiveness always requires preparation.”