President Trump announced he personally “cancelled the meeting with President Putin,” as his administration simultaneously hit Russia’s two largest oil companies with sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
“It didn’t feel right to me,” Trump said in the Oval Office, explaining the cancellation. “It didn’t feel like we were going to get to the place we have to get.” The move signals a collapse in high-level talks.
The sanctions target Rosneft and Lukoil, and are the first against Russia since Trump returned to the White House. The goal, according to the Treasury Department, is to cut off revenues for the “Kremlin’s war machine.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed “President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war” for the new measures and called for an “immediate ceasefire.”
The US action was welcomed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. She praised the “clear signal” of “collective pressure” and noted that the EU’s 19th sanctions package is “imminent.”
