New York: While pressuring India to scale back on buying Russian oil, the US has sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil companies as part of pinning down on Putin administration to end Ukraine war, The Guardian reported.
The sanctions have been placed on Rosneft and Lukoil in order to cut Russia’s key revenue sources which President Trump said Kremlin was using for continuing war in Ukraine.
While levying huge Tariff on India, President Trump accused India of financing Russia’s war.
Announcing sanctions against Russian companies, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent said it was time to stop killing and bring about ‘ceasefire’.
Accusing the two oil companies of funding the war, Scott Bessent said the US treasury was prepared to ‘take further action if necessary to support President Trump’s effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions’.
The US sanction on the two oil companies follows similar measure taken by the British government against them last week.
The EU also sanctioned Russia’s government owned Rosneft earlier but spared Lukoil, a privately owned company.
President Trump, pointing to breakdown in negotiations to end the war, confirmed he had cancelled a summit with Russian president.
President Trump announced that the planned meeting with Putin was cancelled adding that it did not feel right for him to carry out the meeting, ‘But we’ll do it in the future’.
Meanwhile, the US administration has lifted restrictions on Ukraine from using British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles to attack inside Russia.
However, Trump denied having removed any restrictions saying that the report appeared in the Wall Street Journal was ‘FAKE NEWS!’
The sanctions placed Wednesday on two Russian oil companies were meant to cut Russia’s revenue from oil sales.
This is part of his broader move to pressurize Russia along with the 25% tariff on goods from India as a retaliation for buying Russian oil.