A leading Kremlin figure has called the US sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies an ‘act of war’.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday that decisions by the Trump administration to sanction oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil and cancel a summit in Budapest mean that “Trump has fully aligned himself with loony Europe.”
In a Telegram post seen by the Irish Times, Mr Medvedev said: “The US is our enemy, and their talkative ‘peacemaker’ has now fully embarked on the warpath with Russia.”
The Trump administration has been ramping up the pressure on Russia to end the war, after Mr Trump cancelled a meeting in Budapest with Russian leader Putin, saying he did not want it to be a “waste of time”.
Announcing the measures, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said: “Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire.”
He added that given Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia’s two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin’s war machine”.
More people have been targeted in Ukraine in a fresh wave of strikes by Russia, with 25 people injured in Kyiv and six killed on Tuesday, as well as a prolonged blackout in Ukraine caused by the strikes.
The sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as dozens of subsidiaries, come after months of bipartisan pressure on President Donald Trump to hit Russia with harder sanctions.
The sanctions were the first against Russia since Mr Trump returned to the White House in January.
The European Union also agreed on a new raft of sanctions, targeting Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers and banning its imports of liquefied natural gas.
World
US announces sanctions against Russian oil companies
Energy revenue is the linchpin of Russia’s economy, allowing Mr Putin to pour money into the armed forces without worsening inflation for everyday people and avoiding a currency collapse.
The new EU measures took almost a month to decide, and were agreed during a Thursday morning meeting of EU ambassadors.
Speaking on Newstalk, EU council president Antonio Costa said: “We said repeatedly that we will support Ukraine as long as necessary and whatever it takes. Now we have concretised this.”
Next February will mark the fourth year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.