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US President Donald Trump reacts as he and the President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki (not pictured) meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, September 3, 2025. — Reuters
#readies #sanctions #pressure #Russia #Ukraine #war
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has prepared additional sanctions it could use to target key sectors of Russia’s economy if President Vladimir Putin continues to delay an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the matter.
U.S. officials have also told European counterparts they support the EU using frozen Russian assets to buy U.S. weapons for Kiev, and Washington has held nascent internal talks about leveraging Russian assets in the U.S. to support the Ukraine war effort.
While it’s unclear whether Washington will actually carry out any of these moves in the immediate term, it does show that the administration has a developed toolkit to add more after imposing sanctions on Russia for the first time in January.
Trump has positioned himself as a global peacemaker, but he has acknowledged that efforts to end Russia’s more than three-year war in neighboring Ukraine have proved more difficult than he expected.
His meeting with Putin in Alaska in August failed to make progress. Trump told reporters in Doha on Saturday that he would not meet Putin again unless a peace deal appeared likely. “I’m not going to waste my time,” Trump said.
European allies — buffeted by Trump’s swings between accommodation and anger toward Putin — hope to keep up the pressure on Moscow.
A senior US official told Reuters he would like to see European countries take the next big Russia move, which could be additional sanctions or tariffs. A separate source with knowledge of internal administration dynamics said Trump is likely to take a break for a few weeks and gauge Russia’s reaction to Wednesday’s sanctions announcement.
The sanctions are aimed at oil companies Lukol and Rosneft. The move boosted oil prices by more than $2 a barrel and sent major Chinese and Indian buyers of Russian crude scrambling for alternatives.
Trump said on Saturday that when he meets with President Xi Jinping on Thursday, China’s purchase of Russian oil could be discussed. But China is “drastically” reducing Russian oil and “totally obliterating India,” Trump told reporters.
Banking sector, oil, and infrastructure
Some of the additional sanctions drafted by the United States target Russia’s banking sector and infrastructure used to obtain oil, a US official and another person familiar with the matter said.
Last week, Ukrainian officials proposed new sanctions that the United States could impose, a source with knowledge of the discussions said. Two of the sources said his plans include moves to disconnect all Russian banks from the dollar-based system along with their U.S. counterparts. However, it is unclear whether Ukraine’s specific requests are being seriously considered by US officials.
Some U.S. senators are renewing a push to get a long-held bipartisan sanctions bill on the line. A person with knowledge of internal administration dynamics said Trump was open to endorsing the package. Sources cautioned, though, that such a ratification is unlikely this month.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, said on Friday that he believes his country, the United States and Ukraine are close to a diplomatic solution to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A spokeswoman for the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, Haleyna Yuspeuk, said the recent sanctions decision was appreciated, but had no other comment.
“Dismantling Russia’s war machine is the most humane way to end this war,” Yusupyuk wrote in an email.
A week of whiplash
Trump’s decision to slap sanctions on Russia capped a tumultuous week over the administration’s Ukraine policy.
Trump spoke with Putin last week after the pair announced plans to meet in Budapest, which caught Ukraine off guard.
A day later, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, where US officials pressed Zelensky to give up territory in the Donbas region as part of a land swap to end the war. Zelinsky pushed back, and Trump left the meeting with the position that the dispute should be frozen on its fronts.
Then late last week, Russia sent a diplomatic note to Washington that reiterated past peace terms. Days later, Trump told reporters that the planned meeting with Putin was off because “it just didn’t feel right to me.”
Speaking to CNN on Friday after arriving in Washington for talks with US officials, Dmitriyov said a meeting between Trump and Putin had not been canceled, as the US president had described it, and that the two leaders would likely meet later.
Two U.S. officials argued privately that, according to the obstruction, Trump’s abortive plan to meet with Putin was the fruit of unreasonable limitations. After sealing the cease-fire in Gaza, these officials said, Trump overstepped the bounds of the degree to which he could use momentum to broker one diplomatic success to another.
A senior White House official said Trump ultimately decided to slap Russia with sanctions during a meeting Wednesday with Treasury Secretary Scott Besant and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
