EU leaders welcome ‘game-changing’ US sanctions on Russia

EU leaders on Thursday hailed Washington’s decision to impose sanctions on two major Russian oil companies, arguing that the move will pile pressure on Moscow to end its war in Ukraine as the bloc ratchets up its own restrictive measures on the Kremlin.

Speaking before a European Council Summit in Brussels, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said she was “very happy” about Washington’s surprise decision last night to blacklist Rosneft and Lukoil – the first time the US has slapped sanctions on Russia since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

Kallas added that the EU’s imposition of its own 19th sanctions package on Moscow, greenlit earlier on Thursday, will help “deprive Russia from the means to fund this war.”

“I think it’s an important sign of strength that we are aligned here,” Kallas said.

Trump had previously held off on sanctions, hoping he could persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to make peace with a softer approach.

A planned Trump-Putin summit in Budapest was cancelled on Tuesday, after the Russians said their position remained unchanged since the two leaders met in Alaska in August.

“President Trump walked away when he realised that things were not moving forward,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said to Fox Business on Wednesday.

Kallas’s remarks were echoed by Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nausėda, who praised Trump’s move as a “game changer” in the West’s efforts to force Putin to end his war.

Washington’s sanctions “will directly affect the oil and gas industry, which is generating the revenues for Russia’s war machine,” Nausėda said.

“You can negotiate with Russia only from the strong side, and by putting the gun on the table,” he added.

Sweden’s prime minister similarly described Washington’s measures as “very important,” adding that it “comes exactly at the right moment” to hamper Putin’s war.

His Finnish counterpart, Petteri Orpo, said the imposition of EU and US sanctions is a “very strong step that will hit Moscow.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is also attending Thursday’s meeting in Brussels, said Europe’s 19th sanctions package is “crucial” to support his country, which has been the victim of increasingly fierce Russian air attacks in recent months.

He also praised the US sanctions decision. “We waited for this,” Zelenskyy said. “God bless, it will work.”

(cm)