After months of holding off, the Trump administration will announce new Russia sanctions late Wednesday or Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
While President Donald Trump has for months threatened to sanction Moscow if it did not cooperate with his diplomatic efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, he has not yet followed through on that pledge.
Trump and his team have at various points said they saw sanctions as closing the door on diplomacy, even as Ukraine and Europe have argued financial pressure would force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the table. Should the U.S. impose new sanctions, it would be a significant reversal and sign that Trump may be fed up with Putin.
It was unclear what specific actions Bessent was referring to. The Trump administration hasn’t yet updated the sanctions put in place under the Biden administration or issued new ones on Russia.
“We are going to either announce after the close this afternoon or first thing tomorrow morning, a substantial pickup in Russia sanctions,” Bessent told reporters at the White House, without offering any additional details.
Later, in an appearance on Fox Business Network, Bessent said that the forthcoming announcement “will be one of the largest sanctions that we have done against the Russian Federation.”
He added: “These are sanctions, not secondary tariffs.”
Trump said last week he intended to meet with Putin soon after they spoke on the phone but on Tuesday said such a meeting would be “a waste of time.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov scrapped tentative plans to meet this week when Moscow refused to budge from hard-line positions about ending the war.
In another sign of Washington’s increased pressure on Moscow, the Trump administration has allowed Ukraine to use U.S. targeting data to launch long-range British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles against Russia, according to a person familiar with the matter. The change came after the approval authority for these strikes was moved from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who commands NATO and U.S. European Command. The move was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.Trump, however, disputed that report in a social media post, writing: “The Wall Street Journal story on the U.S.A.’s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia is FAKE NEWS! The U.S. has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!”
One European defense official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said transferring the authority would mark “a significant shift” in U.S. policy in favor of Ukraine. The tougher policies come as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is in Washington on Wednesday to meet Trump.
Rutte, addressing the media in between meetings on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning, denied that his last-minute trip to Washington reflected any heightened nervousness following Trump’s conversation with Putin last week. He said that he has “total confidence” in Trump’s ability to eventually broker a deal to end the war, calling the U.S. president “the only one who can get this done.”
The Trump administration’s sanctions announcement comes as EU leaders are nearing a deal to allow Ukraine to use billions of euros worth of Russian frozen state assets to fund a massive loan to Kyiv to support its ongoing war effort. They will hold their quarterly European Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday and are also expected to adopt a 19th sanctions package against Moscow.
Megan Messerly contributed to this report.
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