Washington Imposes Sanctions on Two Prominent Russian Companies Over the War in Ukraine

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott announced sanctions against the Russian companies Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as Bisent, noting that this move comes as a result of their financing of Russian military operations in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine since February 2022.

He explained that the United States will impose one of the largest sanction packages on Moscow, considering Bisent among the key entities involved. He also stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not engage in negotiations in a sincere manner as expected, which led to disappointment within the U.S. administration regarding the outcomes of the talks aimed at ending the conflict.

For his part, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed hope that the sanctions would be lifted soon, saying: “These are massive sanctions… and we hope they will not remain in place for long. We hope to bring an end to the war.” He added that his talks with Putin about ending the conflict were “good,” but have so far remained “unproductive.”

In a related development, the European Union on Wednesday reached an agreement to tighten sanctions on Russian energy resources as part of its nineteenth package of measures, aimed at limiting Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine. The measures include a complete halt to the import of liquefied natural gas from Russia, in addition to actions against the Russian fleet that uses methods to evade Western sanctions to export oil, according to the Danish presidency of the European Union.