(NBC News)- The Treasury Department announced new sanctions targeting Russia’s oil sector Wednesday, the day after President Donald Trump confirmed that a planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss Russia’s war with Ukraine was off.
“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. 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 two companies being sanctioned are Rosneft and Lukoil, along with some of their subsidiaries, the statement said.
Despite the war and the battered Russian economy, Rosneft and Lukoil are worth more than $50 billion each and are two of the biggest companies listed on the Moscow Stock Exchange.
Trump told reporters Wednesday that it was the appropriate time to use sanctions to try to end the war.
“I just felt it was time. Waited a long time,” Trump said.
He added: “These are tremendous sanctions. These are very big; these are against their two big oil companies. And we hope that they won’t be on for long. We hope that the war will be settled.”
Trump also said he hoped both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be “reasonable” and put aside their hatred for each other to resolve the conflict.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishyna, signaled her strong support for the new sanctions Wednesday. “The decision is fully aligned with Ukraine’s consistent position: peace is possible only through strength and pressure on the aggressor using all available international tools,” she posted on X.
Last week, it appeared that relations between Washington and Moscow were warming after Trump held a call with Putin on Thursday and after Trump did not approve Zelenskyy’s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles in a meeting Friday.
Trump’s latest peace push hit a roadblock during a call between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to senior figures on both sides.
Lavrov became “exercised” during the call, a Trump administration official told NBC News. He reiterated Russia’s refusal to agree to an immediate ceasefire before talks begin, a key demand of Kyiv and Europe that the United States has backed.
“We canceled the meeting with President Putin. It just, it didn’t feel right to meet. It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I canceled it, but we’ll do it in the future,” Trump said Wednesday.
He added: “Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations, and then they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”
Trump has been under pressure from Zelenskyy, European nations and members of Congress from both parties for months to intensify U.S. sanctions on Russia.
