Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and European Council President Antonio Costa arrive for an EU Summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos)
WASHINGTON (TNND) — The European Union added a fresh set of economic sanctions on Russia, joining President Donald Trump’s measures to target Russia’s energy infrastructure.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the sanctions, which target Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company (Rosneft) and Lukoil OAO (Lukoil), two of Russia’s largest oil companies and their subsidiaries.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in a written 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 adhering to these sanctions.”
Trump told reporters that the sanctions are “tremendous,” hoping that he won’t have to leave them in place for too long, but that it was the appropriate time to impose.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pushing for the punishment of Russia for attacking Ukraine.
“We waited for this. God bless, it will work. And this is very important,” Zelenskyy said.
The 27-nation bloc took months to decide on the sanctions, with the EU measures specifically targeting Russia’s oil and gas.
The sanctions ban the import of liquefied natural gas from Russia into EU nations, banning more than 100 new ships of Russia’s shadow fleet.
They also target transactions using cryptocurrency, prohibit operations within the bloc that use payment cards from Russia, and expand a ban on exports to include components that are used in military manufacturing.
According to Russian state media, the package of measures is ineffective. Maria Zakharova, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said the new sanctions by the United States are “entirely counterproductive, including in terms of signaling in favor of or achieving a meaningful negotiated solution to the Ukrainian conflict.”
“If the current U.S. administration follows the example of its predecessors, who attempted to coerce or force Russia into sacrificing its national interests through unlawful sanctions, the result will be exactly the same — disastrous from a domestic political standpoint and detrimental to the stability of the global economy,” the spokeswoman said.
The sanctions come after the White House shared that Trump currently has no plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future, despite talks last week of a summit between the two in Budapest.
“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 told reporters.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had a “productive phone call” on Tuesday, but a White House official told The Hill because of the success of the call, an in-person meeting “between the Secretary and Foreign Minister is not necessary, and there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future.”
It was the latest setback in a series of attempts to get Russia to the negotiating table to bring an end to the war.
