
U.S. sanctions Russia’s largest oil firms after latest attack on Ukraine
Global News
The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil and dozens of subsidiaries come after months of bipartisan pressure on Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions on its oil industry.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced new sanctions Wednesday against Russia’s two biggest oil companies and blasted Moscow’s refusal to end its “senseless war” in Ukraine as U.S.-led efforts to end the war floundered and the Ukrainian president sought more foreign military help.
The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as dozens of subsidiaries, followed months of bipartisan pressure on President Donald Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions on its oil industry.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Bessent said in a statement. Given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine.”
Bessent said the Treasury Department was prepared to take further action if necessary to support Trump’s effort to end the war. “We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions.”
Bessent made the comments as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was in Washington for talks with Trump. The military alliance has been coordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased from the United States by Canada and European countries.
The announcement came after Russian drones and missiles blasted sites across Ukraine, killing at least six people, including a woman and her two young daughters.
The attack came in waves from Tuesday night into Wednesday and targeted at least eight Ukrainian cities, as well as a village in the region of the capital, Kyiv, where a strike set fire to a house in which the mother and her 6-month-old and 12-year-old daughters were staying, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk said.
At least 29 people, including five children, were wounded in Kyiv, which appeared to be the main target, authorities said.







