President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced major new sanctions on Russia, after canceling his proposed meeting with President Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
‘These are tremendous sanctions,’ the president said, adding that the ‘hoped they would not be on for long.’
The president made his remarks during an Oval Office meeting with NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday.
The sanctions specifically target two of Russia’s largest oil companies, as the White House referred to them as the primary funders of ‘the Kremlin’s war machine.’
The sanctions apply to Russia’s Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company (Rosneft) and Lukoil OAO (Lukoil) and it’s subsidiaries.
Trump is deploying stronger action against Russia to pressure them to the negotiating table as his efforts to end the war in Ukraine continue.
‘Hopefully he’ll become reasonable and hopefully Zelensky will be reasonable too,’ he said.
Trump signaled he was frustrated with the lack of progress in his communications with Putin.
President Donald Trump points as he answers questions from reporters at the White House
President Donald Trump canceled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin prior to the announcement
‘Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations. And then they don’t go anywhere,’ he said.
Trump said he was optimistic that the end of the war in Ukraine could be reached, but for now any meeting with Putin would be postponed.
‘It didn’t feel right to me but we’ll do it in the future,’ he said.
Earlier this week, the president indicated he might be willing to send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and invited President Volodymyr Zelensky to meet with him at the White House on Monday.
But on Wednesday he indicated that he would not move forward to send the long-range missiles to Zelensky.
‘They’re highly complex. So the only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot is if we shot it and we’re not going to do that,’ he said.
He urged both Zelensky and Putin to work for peace and promised to make it a priority for his administration.
‘A lot of people are dying, you know, they’re not Americans, but they’re people. They’re souls and they’re dying by the thousands. Worst since World War II. And we really should stop it,’ he said.
On Wednesday evening, the president also denounced a story from The Wall Street Journal reporting that the United States had approved the use of long range missiles into Russia as ‘fake news’.
‘The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!’ he wrote on social media.
But the White House appears to be readying more pressure on Russia.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed to reporters in the White House driveway that they were readying increased sanctions on Russia to be announced late Wednesday evening or on Thursday morning.
‘We are going to either announce after the close this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning a substantial pickup in Russia sanctions,’ Bessent told reporters in the White House driveway on Wednesday.
The president first confirmed Tuesday that the planned meeting with Putin was canceled.
‘I don’t want to have a wasted meeting. I don’t want to have a waste of time,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office.
