By Andrea Shalal and Timothy Gardner
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he is “strongly considering” imposing sweeping sanctions, including ones on banking, and tariffs on Russia until a ceasefire and peace agreement is reached with Ukraine.
Trump has also paused military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine to pressure Kyiv to accept a ceasefire deal after an explosive Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a week ago.
“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large-scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED,” Trump said. “To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!”
The U.S. Treasury Department is looking at possible sanctions on Russian oil majors and oilfield service companies, a source familiar with the matter said, deepening steps already taken by former President Joe Biden’s administration in January.
Neither the Treasury nor the White House had any comment on the potential sanctions.
Sean Savett, a former spokesperson for the National Security Council under Biden, said Trump’s sanctions comments amounted to an “admission of naivete” about Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces launched 67 missiles and almost 200 drones at Ukraine overnight.
“Not only did he clearly get it wrong when he claimed repeatedly that Putin wants peace, but his actions squeezing Ukraine have made peace less attainable by strengthening Putin’s hand instead of Ukraine’s,” he said.
Trump’s threat to ratchet up pressure on Moscow comes amid criticism of the U.S. president for doubling down on Ukraine, including his comment last month that Kyiv, not Russia, was responsible for starting the war.
The latest comments came days after Reuters reported that the Trump administration is drawing up plans to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as part of its push to end the war and improve diplomatic and economic relations with Moscow. Those plans include ways to ease sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
Russia, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, is already subject to over 20,000 sanctions imposed by the United States and partners after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The U.S. alone has implemented 6,433 sanctions against Russia since February 2022, with measures by other countries including Britain, Australia, the European Union and Canada reaching a total of 21,692, according to a sanctions dashboard produced by Castellum.AI, a global risk and compliance platform.
U.S. sanctions on Russia include measures aimed at limiting its oil and gas revenues, including a cap of $60 per barrel on Russia’s oil exports.
Biden, in the final weeks of his presidency, also hit Moscow with sanctions on Russian energy companies and vessels that shipped its oil, followed by sanctions on 250 targets, including some based in China, to crack down on Russia’s evasion of earlier U.S. sanctions.
Those measures included fresh sanctions on almost 100 critical Russian entities – including banks and companies operating in the country’s energy sector – that were previously sanctioned by the United States, increasing their secondary sanction risks.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Timothy Gardner, Susan Heavey and Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by Doina Chiacu, Mark Porter and Daniel Wallis)
