Putin Summit Scrapped: Trump Admin Lowers Boom on Russian Oil

Washington has unleashed its most significant sanctions against Russia since Donald Trump returned to the White House, targeting the country’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. The explicit goal is to cut the “key revenues” from oil sales that finance the Russian “war machine.”
The announcement was paired with a major diplomatic reversal: President Trump, speaking alongside the NATO chief, confirmed he had cancelled a planned summit with Vladimir Putin. “It didn’t feel right to me,” Trump said, indicating that progress toward ending the war in Ukraine had completely stalled.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the sanctions as a necessary step given the lack of diplomatic progress. “Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies,” his statement read, adding a call for an “immediate ceasefire.”
This move was celebrated by Ukraine and its European allies. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen praised the new sanctions, stating she had spoken with Bessent. “This is a clear signal from both sides of the Atlantic that we will keep up collective pressure on the aggressor,” she wrote.
The new US sanctions also arrive as the EU is preparing its 19th sanctions package. The EU’s measures are expected to ban Russian LNG imports, blacklist “shadow fleet” oil tankers, and target banks and entities helping Russia evade existing financial restrictions.