Donald Trump targets Russia’s top oil firms, seeks end to Ukraine war

In his first major move on Moscow since beginning his second term, US President Donald Trump has announced sweeping new sanctions against Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, in what he described as a renewed push to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.

The US Treasury Department confirmed the sanctions late on Wednesday, 22 October, saying that the measures would target both companies and their subsidiaries. Officials cautioned that further actions “could not be ruled out”, signalling Washington’s readiness to intensify economic pressure if the Kremlin continues its military campaign.

Speaking at the White House alongside NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, Trump hailed the sanctions as “tremendous” and “very big”, emphasising that they were meant to push all sides toward a peace deal rather than prolong confrontation.

“These are tremendous sanctions — very big, against their two biggest oil companies,” Trump said. “We hope they won’t be on for long. We hope the war will be settled.”

Trump admitted, however, that his frequent conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin had so far yielded little progress.

“Every time I speak with Vladimir, I have good conversations — and then they don’t go anywhere,” he remarked. “He’s fighting a war. It’s two very competent sides, and that’s the way war is. But I’d say it’s time to make a deal.”

The US president also confirmed that he had cancelled a proposed meeting with Putin scheduled to take place in Budapest, Hungary, citing a lack of meaningful progress.

“We cancelled the meeting with President Putin. It just didn’t feel right to me,” Trump told reporters. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get. So I cancelled it — but we’ll do it in the future.”

The decision reportedly came after a phone call on Monday between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, during which Washington conveyed its frustration over Moscow’s continued military aggression in Ukraine.

Only a week earlier, Trump had held a two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation with Putin, describing it as one where “great progress” had been made. Yet, that optimism appeared to evaporate swiftly.

A day after the call, Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House for what he called a “very interesting and cordial” discussion.

“The meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was very interesting and cordial,” Trump wrote later on Truth Social. “But I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing — and make a DEAL!”

He added that both leaders should “stop where they are and claim victory,” a remark that many observers interpreted as Trump’s attempt to push for a freeze in the conflict — effectively urging a ceasefire without preconditions.

Having recently brokered a ceasefire in Gaza, Trump now appears intent on turning his diplomatic energy toward Europe’s bloodiest war in decades. His administration has intensified outreach to both Moscow and Kyiv, seeking to position Washington once again as the central mediator in a conflict that has dragged on for over three years.

Trump’s earlier high-profile summit with Putin in Alaska in August ended without any tangible agreement, though aides described it as “constructive.” The latest sanctions suggest that, for all his talk of making a deal, Trump is now wielding economic power to force movement at the negotiating table.

As winter approaches on the battlefield and energy markets brace for disruption, the sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil mark a decisive escalation — a move that could either bring the Kremlin closer to compromise or deepen the standoff that has defined US-Russia relations for more than a decade.

With IANS inputs