United States President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, in a change of policy regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine, which led global oil prices to rise 5% this Thursday (23).
The sanctions target Russia’s two biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, which together account for more than 5% of global oil production, and mark a U-turn from Trump, who said last week that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin would soon hold a summit in Budapest to try to end the war in Ukraine.
Russia has called the new U.S. sanctions counterproductive and signaled that its conditions for ending the war in Ukraine, terms that Kiev and many European countries consider equivalent to surrender, remain unchanged.
In unveiling the oil sanctions, Scott Bessent, the US Treasury Secretary, made clear that Washington was targeting Russia’s ability to finance what has become Europe’s biggest land war since World War II and was ready to take further action.
“Given President Putin’s refusal to end this senseless war, the Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that finance the Kremlin’s war machine,” Bessent said in a statement. “We encourage our allies to join us in adhering to these sanctions.”
India, in turn, became the biggest buyer of Russian crude oil shipped by sea at a discount following Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Indian refiners are likely to drastically reduce Russian oil imports due to the new sanctions, industry sources said on Thursday.
