US imposes sanctions on Russian oil over Putin’s ‘refusal’ to end war in Ukraine
President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent has announced new sanctions against Russia’s two biggest oil companies and condemned Moscow’s refusal to end its “senseless war” on Ukraine.
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.
“Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire,” Mr Bessent said.
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”.
Mr Bessent said the Treasury Department was prepared to take further action if necessary to support Mr Trump’s effort to end the war. “We encourage our allies to join us and adhere to these sanctions.”
He spoke after Russian drones and missiles blasted sites across Ukraine, killing at least six people, including a woman and her two young daughters.
The attack came a day after Mr Trump put his planned meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on hold, saying he did not want it to be a “waste of time”.
Repeated waves of missiles and drones throughout the night targeted at least eight Ukrainian cities, as well as a village in the Kyiv region where a strike set fire to a house in which a mother and her six-month-old and 12-year-old daughters were staying, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk said.
At least 25 people, including five children, were injured in Kyiv alone, authorities said.
Russian drones also hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, during the day on Wednesday when children were in the building, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
One person was killed and six were injured but no children were physically harmed, he said.
Even so, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said many of the children were in shock after being rescued from the building by emergency crews.
Russia fired 405 strike and decoy drones and 28 missiles at Ukraine, mainly targeting Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said.
The attack caused emergency power blackouts across the country, Ukraine’s energy ministry said. Repairs were under way where possible and electricity would be restored “as soon as possible”, it added.
“Another night that proves Russia does not feel enough pressure for prolonging the war,” Mr Zelensky said in a statement.
He said the strike caused damage in the cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia, as well as Odesa, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia, and the wider regions of Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Sumy.
Mr Zelensky urged the European Union, the US and the Group of Seven industrialised nations, or G7, to take steps to sanction Russia.
“It is very important that the world does not remain silent now and that there is a united response to Russia’s treacherous strikes,” he said.
Pressure can be applied on Moscow “only through sanctions, long-range (missile) capabilities, and coordinated diplomacy among all our partners,” he said.
Mr Zelensky has credited Mr Trump’s remarks that he was considering supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for Mr Putin’s willingness to meet.
The Ukrainian leader was set to visit Stockholm on Wednesday, where he’s expected to meet with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at the start of what the Ukrainian leader has said will be a week of intense diplomacy.
More international economic sanctions on Russia are likely to be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, while on Friday, a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing — a group of 35 countries who support Ukraine — is due to take place in London.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s army general staff said the country’s forces struck a chemical plant in Russia’s Bryansk region late on Tuesday night using air-to-surface Storm Shadow missiles.
The plant is an important part of the Russian military and industrial complex producing gun powder, explosives, missile fuel and ammunition.
In the Kyiv region, rescuers discovered the bodies of three people — including two children — after a strike set a private house on fire in the village of Pohreby, regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk said.
According to Mr Kalashnyk, the victims were a woman and her two daughters — an infant of six months and a 12-year-old girl.
“Their bodies were found at the site of the fire,” the governor said.
“This is a tragedy for the entire community, for the Kyiv region, and for the country.”
Two more people were found dead in the Dnipro district of the Ukrainian capital, where emergency services rescued 10 people after a fire caused by drone debris hit the sixth floor of a 16-storey residential building, local authorities said.
The attack also blew out windows of a medical facility and debris was found at another residential building, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on his Telegram channel.
In the Darnytskyi district of the capital, emergency services were responding after drone debris hit a 17-storey residential building causing a fire on five floors. Fifteen people were rescued, including two children.
In the Desnianskyi district, 20 people were rescued after the façade of a 10-storey building was damaged and a gas pipe caught fire. Debris from a drone also fell on a dormitory building and rescue workers were headed to the scene, Mr Klitschko said.
The large-scale overnight aerial attack also targeted other cities in Ukraine including Zaporizhzhia and the port city of Izmail in the southern Odesa region.
An “energy object” in Odesa region suffered “extensive damages” according to DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest private energy operator. The company also said Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions experienced emergency blackouts.
Following the blackouts, energy minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said that “as soon as security conditions allow, energy workers will begin assessing the consequences of the attack and carrying out repair work”.
Mr Trump was expected to hold talks at the White House on Wednesday with Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte.
The military alliance has been co-ordinating deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, many of them purchased from the US by Canada and European countries.
The decision to postpone the meeting in Budapest, Hungary — which Mr Trump had announced last week — followed a call on Monday between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.
The Russian diplomat made clear in public remarks on Tuesday that Moscow opposes an immediate ceasefire.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is seeking to purchase 25 Patriot air defence systems from US firms using frozen Russian assets and assistance from partners.
Mr Zelensky said acquiring them would take time because of a long production lead-in but added that he had spoken to Mr Trump about help procuring them more quickly, potentially from European partners.
Earlier this month, Russia carried out its largest attack of the war on natural gas facilities operated by Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz Group, launching 381 drones and 35 missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force.
Officials said the strikes were part of an effort to cripple the country’s power grid ahead of winter.
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