Days after U.S. President Donald Trump frustrated Ukrainians by retreating from plans to supply Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, officials in Kyiv are welcoming new U.S. sanctions on Moscow as a sign Washington may be ready to put real pressure on the Kremlin.
For the first time since Trump took office, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Moscow, targeting two Russian oil giants, Lukoil and Rosneft, as well as their subsidiaries.
“This is very pleasant and unexpected… Trump has finally moved from words to concrete actions,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a Ukrainian lawmaker and chair of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the Kyiv Independent.
“This is a major shift. But as for these sanctions alone, I’m not sure if they’re enough.”
When announcing the sanctions, the U.S. Treasury Department cited Russia’s “lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine.” Trump also canceled his planned summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, which he had announced just days earlier.
Ukraine agreed to a full and unconditional ceasefire brokered by the U.S. back in March, but Moscow rejected the proposal and has since continued launching regular and deadly attacks on Ukraine.
Over the past months, Trump has repeatedly voiced frustration over Putin’s unwillingness to compromise on ending Russia’s war, but has refrained from using significant leverage to pressure Moscow to pursue a peace deal.
“I just felt it was time,” Trump said on Oct. 23 after the sanctions were imposed.
Ahead of the EU summit in Brussels later in the day, President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the U.S.’s move as “very important” and welcomed the new EU sanctions against Moscow.
“This is a good signal to other countries in the world to join the sanctions,” he said. “We need to continue until Putin stops this war.”
As Putin used the ongoing negotiations to bring Trump into Russia’s corner and ease Western pressure on Moscow, Kyiv continued to work with Washington on further restrictions against Russia.
The new sanctions could potentially impact Russia’s economy and limit the capabilities of its war machine, but the move alone will not be enough to bring Putin to the negotiating table with Ukraine, said Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics
“Putin acts like a mob boss — and a mob boss can’t admit things publicly. The sanctions set the stage for talks, but they can’t be the trigger,” Mylovanov told the Kyiv Independent.
Merezhko echoed this sentiment, saying the U.S. should adopt a “comprehensive approach” by supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles, targeting Russia’s banking system with sanctions, and imposing secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian gas and oil.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, the Ukrainian president’s commissioner for sanctions, believes that due to their scope, the recent U.S. sanctions will have a “swift and significant impact.” The eagerly awaited pressure on Russia may have irreversible consequences, he said.
“No one will want to buy oil from these exporters because of the risk of secondary U.S. sanctions,” said Vlasiuk.
“The U.S. sanctions open a Pandora’s box.”
Trump’s war mediation: 8 months of shifting between Ukraine, Russia
U.S. President Donald Trump’s role in mediating Russia’s war against Ukraine appears to be stuck in a loop — one defined by reversals, contradictions, and shifts in tone between Kyiv and Moscow. After meeting President Volodymyr Zelensky in September, the U.S. president appeared confident that Ukraine could reclaim its Russian-occupied territories. “I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump wrote
